Playing Cat and Mammoth
by Morag I
Summary: Living out their leisurely lives our favorite motley herd is back again. With Ellie expecting, Manny's tail is in enough of a knot. So to speak. The last thing this family needs is a trio of bloodthirsty cave lions hard on their heels.
1. The Bad Good Morning

Morning came late for two particular mammoths.

Manny was usually quite the early riser, normally roused by the grumblings of his stomach waiting to be fed. Often he'd get up the moment he would wake and stretch his rested muscles. But this time when he began to stir, he decided to lie there for a moment.

Last night, the herd had bedded down beneath a large rock overhang. Glancing around, he found that only Sid was there. The sloth was sawing logs; every now and then mumbling incoherent nothings. Typical. Diego was nowhere to be seen. Manny figured the saber was out looking for breakfast. It wasn't hard to pick out the faint sounds of the opossum brother's morning game of goodness-knew-what among the giant redwoods.

Turning his attention to the mammoth sleeping beside him, Manny's gaze softened. Instead of sleeping on her stomach, as she usually did, Ellie was sprawled out on her side.

Lifting his trunk, Manfred swept a piece of her wild hair out of her eyes with gentleness not oft seen in the large mammoth bull. He then began affectionately stroking her soft pelt. Slowly, his trunk brushed over her shoulder and side. However, he lingered at her swollen belly and heaved a contented sigh to the calf within.

He knew it wouldn't be long now. Not very long before he'd be a father…again.

_You could have all that again, you know._

The sloth had been right, in a way. No, he could never have them back. That family was gone forever. But he _could_ have a family again; the little calf growing in his mate's belly was proof enough of that. Manny had been granted another chance.

When Ellie had announced her pregnancy, Manfred had promised himself, in his heart, that history would not repeat itself. The horrors he had endured would not happen again and that he would not fail his family again.

Without warning, some tiny force from inside Ellie's stomach gave the tip of Manny's trunk a kick, yanking him out of his reverie. The bull pulled back instinctively, his ears cocked forwards in surprise.

A small laugh broke the morning silence.

Manny eyes flicked back to Ellie's, a warmhearted smile spreading across his face. Now that the mammoth female was awake, his trunk moved to fondly brush her cheek. "Good morning," he sighed in his low, rumbling tone.

Ellie returned the greeting and shifted her position slightly. "Two more months."

Manny couldn't help but grin. "Two more months," he repeated softly to himself.

"Squirt been doing a lot of kicking lately?" he inquired, his trunk tenderly finding its way back to the fur of Ellie's shoulder.

"You have no idea," she replied, giving a slight nod towards her stomach. "I think it's almost ready to come out itself," Ellie gave another quiet laugh, looking back up at her mate. "Feels like someone could wind up taking after their father."

"Let's hope not. I don't know if this world can handle more than one."

Both mammoths glanced up at the new voice, but looked around in confusion when there was no one to be found other than the still sleeping Sid.

"Up here, turtledoves."

Both mammoths lifted their eyes upwards, into the grinning face of tawny-furred saber-tooth tiger, who was crouched on the overhang. "Hola," he purred in amusement.

"Good morning, Diego," Ellie called up. "Why don't you come down here?"

"Sure thing." At first, the saber acted as though he was going to turn around, but then he paused, looking down at the two mammoth figures thoughtfully.

Manny noticed a sly grin crossing his saber friend's face. "Diego…?" the mammoth inquired hesitantly, his eyes narrowing, "What are you—

"Look out belooooooooooow!" roared an ocher blur as it flung itself from the overhang.

"OOMPH!" Manny grunted when four hundred pounds of saber landed heavily on his back. He groaned and thanked his lucky stars that Diego's claws hadn't sank into his thick skin.

"Hello, Ellie," Diego purred to the mammoth female.

"Hi there, Diego," she returned politely, her expression slightly worried.

"Diego," Manfred moaned through gritted teeth.

The saber-tooth bounded easily off Manny's back, a cool grin exposing all of his brilliantly white fangs. "Yeah?"

Manny slowly heaved himself to his feet, stretching his back and wincing. "Diego," he repeated. "Guess what today is?"

"What?"

The mammoth bull smiled mirthlessly. "It would just happen to be an unscheduled Day of the DEAD!"

Diego turned tail and fled as Manny charged, his trunk out to grab him. The saber-tooth darted between rocks and saplings, dodging Manny's trunk at every turn, but always being blocked by a tusk or a shaggy leg. Leaping onto a boulder, Diego bounded onto Manny's head and scampered down the mammoth's back. However, before he could leap off, a furry snake coiled around his back paw, rudely yanking him backwards.

The saber swung limply for a moment, dangling like a fish on some human line, looking upside-down at the smug expression of a mammoth. But Manny wasn't the only mammal with tricks up his sleeve (figuratively speaking). Twisting around, Diego parted his jaws and let a deafening roar right down Manny's ear.

Cringing and wanting to get the earsplitting noise away from his head, Manny flung the saber upwards into a tree.

Twigs and branches slapped and whacked Diego as he flew into the arms of a small redwood covered in creeping vines. He arched up and over a limb and was about to go crashing downwards, when he caught sight of a vine and snapped his powerful jaws around it. Diego jerked to a grinding halt when the strong vine went taught. Down below there came a loud BOOM and he felt the tree shudder. A muted groan floated up soon after.

Ungracefully, the saber-tooth clawed his way onto the branch to peer down at the confusing spectacle below.

One of Manny's front legs was pulled painfully underneath him. The other one was out by his side, while he was on his knees in the back end, causing him to be pushed onto his chest in a most uncomfortable (not to mention undignified) way. When Diego noticed the vine trailing out from underneath his mammoth friend, he followed it with his eyes as it looped around several branches and then understood what had happened when the vine came to wrap around the branch he was now precariously perched on. It all made pleasing sense. Obviously, when Diego had grabbed the vine, a part of it had coiled around Manny's ankle and unexpectedly snatched it underneath him.

"Whooooo-hooooo! Do it again!"

"Encore! Encore!"

Diego lifted his head to the sounds of Crash and Eddie clapping and cheering. The saber gave a brilliant smile of triumph to his applauding spectators.

Slowly, Diego made his way down to the ground. He landed close to Manny and padded over to the mammoth's head, still grinning victoriously—again showing his vivid pearly-whites. "What's today, Manny?"

Manfred cracked his light brown eyes open and glared at Diego. "It's gotta' be a Monday, the way things are going." Just about every morning, Manny and Diego would go through this. One or the other would start a mock brawl.

It had started out as just a slight debate. Manny and Diego had differed on weather a single saber could take down a mammoth. Of course, Manfred argued that a loner would have zero chance against a full-grown mammoth's fury. But Diego was positive if one was clever enough, they could get the job done. Usually Manny would retort: _Yeah, if kitty-kitty was clever enough to bring his buddies along._

Now it had turned into an experiment—a test. Whoever came out top would be anyone's guess, seeing as Manny was never lacking in brawn and Diego had plenty of the brains. Lately Manfred had been doing all the winning, but now his streak was definitely broken and Diego's theory wasn't _entire_ junk.

Diego rolled his yellow-green eyes at the mammoth. "Ah, c'mon. Be a sport. You serve my butt to me eight days in a row and now you can't take a loss."

Just as he was about to spit back a characteristically witty retort, Manny was interrupted.

"If the fight of the day is over, could one of you strapping males help me up?" called Ellie. The mammoth female had managed to roll herself onto her stomach, but getting herself _and _her belly up onto her legs was a different can of worms.

Diego watched Manny hoist himself up and shake his foot loose of the offending vine faster than he thought the mammoth (albeit bruised and scraped) was naturally capable of, and limp to Ellie's side.

After a moment of pushing and gentle nudging from Manny's tusks, Ellie was leaning into his sturdy shoulder, catching her breath.

Diego took this moment to do a bit of grooming. The saber-tooth gave his chest a few swift licks, removing needles and bark from his fur and then moved onto his golden hindquarters. However, he was still watching the mammoth couple from the corners of his sharp eyes, secretly grinning.

Ever since the little calf in Ellie's stomach had started to show itself, Manny had fussed over her like no other. Now that her belly was enormous, he had tripled his attentiveness. It wasn't too hard to imagine why. Every time he saw her, Manny's usually firm gaze would soften and Diego could practically hear his mammoth friend's chest thump with each tender embrace. Simply put, the mammoth bull loved her with everything he had.

It was also apparent that Ellie felt the same way about Manfred. Diego suspected it was because of his utter devotion to her and his herd, and the fact that underneath all that gruffness was a surprisingly kind heart. She probably found him charming and most likely handsome…in his own mammoth way.

Suddenly, a loud yawning interrupted Diego's thoughts. "Morning, fungus-butt," she saber called without even looking up.

The yawner would be Sid—who had just woken up on his bed of old redwood needles and bark, and had sat up to scratch his tail. "Morning, Diego," the sloth called back, waving his blunt claws. Sid slowly hoisted himself to his stubby legs and stretched. "Morning everybody. Hi Ellie, how's the kid?"

Ellie nodded, smiling at the friendly sloth. "Oh, good. It was kicking on and off through the night and a little this morning, but all's well." The mammoth female leaned off Manny's shoulder and stood by herself. She noticed that still, her mate was watching her with caring eyes and forward ears. "You alright this morning?" she heard him ask. Ellie gave his shoulder a reassuring flick with her trunk. "Sure, stop worrying 'bout me. I'm fine." When his expression didn't change into something a bit less concerned, she changed the subject. "So, where are we going today?"

Manny shrugged. "I thought we'd just continue going east until we got out of this forest. I'm kinda' sick of the woods, it's starting to make me feel claustrophobic."

"I'm up for a change of scenery too," Diego put in. "Hunting in the forest isn't much of a picnic. I keep snagging my fur on branches."

Ellie gave her pelt a slight shake, dusting a stubborn bunch of needles off her shoulder. "I think we ought to go northeast instead of straight east," she declared.

Everyone turned to the mammoth female. "What makes you say that?" Diego questioned, tilting his head to the side.

In answer, Ellie pointed forward with her trunk. "Crash and Eddie scouted ahead and found a deep ravine due east. But it stops about a couple of miles to the north. They figure if we set out northeast from here we should hit the end of it and save time."

Silence.

"What?" she inquired, feeling a little nervous under their shocked expressions.

"Nothing," Manny replied honestly, "I just can't believe those two knot-heads had the initiative to _scout ahead_."

"No joke," Sid put it.

Diego's eyebrows were merely raised in surprise.

It was at that moment that said 'possum brothers chose to show up. They emerged from the top of the overhang, vaulted off in tandem, landed on Manny's head and leaped to their sister's quickly (so that her mate wouldn't have the chance to get irked about being used as a springboard).

"Sheesh," Crash snorted, giving their fellow male herd members an indignant look. Eddie, who was equally offended, crossed his arms. "It's like you guys expect us to be _complete_ idiotic goof-offs with no thought of safety for the rest of our herd."

"As a matter of fact," Diego answered coolly, "we do."

Crash faked a hurt expression. "Oh, I see how you are," he sobbed.

"Yeah, man," Eddie continued for him, mimicking his brother's (sad) expression. "That hurts, right here,—" the 'possum thumped a fist over his heart—"right here."

Diego rolled his eyes. "Oh come off it." In a fluid motion that could only come from a predator, he rose and began walking northeast. "If you two are so sure that northeast is the way to go, I guess northeast it is."

"Wait a minute," Sid scurried off after his saber friend. "Aren't you an' Manny gonna' give each other the ole' one two?" the sloth inquired, swinging his fists.

"'Fraid you missed it this morning, Sid," Diego called back over his shoulder. "You slept right through it. Though how I don't know, seeing as Manny hit the ground so hard."

Now it was Manny's turn to roll his eyes as Sid gaped at the mammoth bull.

"He _beat _you, Manny?"

"Yeah," Eddie laughed, "he fell flat on his face." Crash nodded emphatically.

Sid couldn't contain his shock. "Diego _beat_ you?"

Manfred rumbled under his breath, his pride obviously wounded and limping. "Diego got lucky_…really_ lucky, that's all."

"Sure, whatever you want to call it, Manny," Diego hollered, a smirk on his face.

The mammoth grumbled a little louder. "It was nothing but pure luck, an' you know it."

"Whatever."

Ellie shook her head and wrapped the end of her trunk around Manny's before he had his chance to do any more growling. She head Manny give a slight grunt of surprise and after a moment a sigh as he began to relax into step with her. "There's always tomorrow," Ellie whispered in his ear. She met his gaze when his eyes flicked towards her.

"Yeah…_tomorrow_ I'll kick Diego's furry can," Manny grinned.

Rolling her eyes good naturedly, she nudged his cheek with hers.

And so, the small band of mix-matched travelers set off northeast with the intent of trading the leafy canopy of the great redwoods for the high dome of the lofty blue sky. But leaving these ancient woods would turn out to be more difficult that anyone could imagine.

A/N: Don't you just love writing those lines that a dramatic: dun, dun, daaaaaaaaaaaaaa! could come after? I know I do!


	2. Death Wears Stripes

Chapter Two!

Diego parted his jaws and tested the air. After a moment of sniffing, he closed his mouth. The saber snorted, empting his sensitive nostrils of the scent of redwood needles and moss. He could have sworn he'd smelled something different, something more to the scent of another animal. His sharp predatory eyes scanned his surroundings but found nothing other than the usual. Diego shook his head, resigning to the fact that it must have been his imagination.

"Hey, Diego, you frozen back there?" Manny called over his shoulder.

"Ooooh! Don't say _that_!" Sid cautioned, waving his clawed hands. "You remember what happened the last time you said _that_!"

The mammoth rolled his eyes. "Calm down, sloth. It's just a saying."

"Manny, what's he talkin' about?" Ellie inquired.

Her mate sighed, giving a light smile. "I'll tell you a little story sometim—" Manny halted without warning, his ears suddenly up and his eyes wide. Something didn't smell quite right.

Ellie had stopped as well, and now a knot of anxiety twisted her stomach as she watched the chestnut fur on Manny's shoulder blades stiffen.

Sid, oblivious as usual, ran into Manny's back leg with an: Oommph! "Hey!" he shouted, "What gi—" The sloth was instantly silenced by a rough swat to the tail by Diego. Sid's head whipped around to give the saber an inquisitive look. Diego put a claw to his mouth, signaling for silence.

Turning around, Diego dropped into a crouch, scenting.

Manfred stepped forward, lifting his trunk, trying to catch the scent that was once there, but now gone.

Ellie edged in a little closer to her mate.

Crash and Eddie looked around nervously.

Sid picked up a stick and held it cocked over his shoulder.

Without warning, a large bush rustled, causing everyone to jump.

Diego swung himself around to face it, his muscles steeled for a fight. He glanced over at Manfred, who'd placed himself protectively between Ellie and the bush.

The saber felt a slap of shock when Sid stepped forward with his stick—poised to strike—his body shaking like a winter leaf. Diego wanted to shout at him not to get any closer, Ellie tried to reach forward to drag him away, but the sloth charged forward at the last moment—screeching and waving his weapon—and into the bush.

"AAAAAHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

_What the?_ Diego thought.

"EEP—!"

Manny cocked his eyebrows.

"Huh…? Wait as sec…I didn't kno— AHHHHHH! Ouch! Ooooooowwwww! Whoooooooaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! Ouchouchouchouchouch!"

With another earsplitting screech, a grey blur shot out of the bush…minus the stick. Manny soon realized that it had latched itself to the back of his front leg.

Sid was panting and quivering from nose (which now had a tiny bite mark on it) to tail, his blue eyes round as silver dollars. "I-I-I-It's in th-th-th-there!" Sid pointed a shaking claw at the wild shrub.

"_What's_ in there?" a perplexed Manfred inquired to the still trembling sloth. "What is it?"

Sid's only answer was another frightened cry as he dove farther behind his big mammoth friend.

Everyone looked towards the bush; their hearts in their throats, to see a blaze of patchy brown fur lunge out…and then scamper away.

Diego arched an eyebrow when he recognized the receding shape of a cotton white tail and its tiny owner.

"A bunny rabbit?" Ellie murmured in confusion.

"Hey, Sid," Manfred called, trying to find the sloth, still cowering underneath him. "Where's the vicious carnivore that almost ripped you limb from limb?"

"D-Didn't you s-s-see it?" Sid stammered, peeking around the mammoth bull's shaggy leg.

Manny rolled his eyes and heaved a sighing: "Oi vey." Looking over at his mate, he shook his head wearily. Ellie was trying to stifle laughter.

"Sid, you embarrass me sometimes, you know?" Diego growled. "What was it trying to do? Cute you to death?"

"But wait!" the sloth protested. "What I saw was huge an-an-and ferocious and had long fangs and serrated claws! Like this!" Sid lifted his hands and curved them, exposing his flat teeth in a snarl.

Crash and Eddie almost died in hysterics atop Ellie's shoulders.

Manfred snorted, turning to continue northeast. "At least I got beaten by a saber-tooth tiger instead of a little rabbit."

"There was something else in there!" Sid protested, scampering off after his two woolly mammoth friends. He heard Diego give a sigh behind him. "I swear, it wasn't a rabbi—"

The sloth never got any farther. A savage roar rent the air and a gold and black shape tore through the undergrowth, slamming Diego to the ground with a bone-jarring force.

Diego found himself looking up into the ferocious face of his assailant. A milky-white marled eye and its golden counterpart glared down at him with unspeakable malice. Its whiskered lips were parted to reveal scissored fangs in a cruel snarl. A cave lion. His tremendous weight was crushing Diego's chest; his hooked claws found new purchase the sinew of the saber-tooth's shoulders. Diego roared in agony and pummeled his adversary's stomach with his hind paws, vaulting the lion over his head.

Only then did Diego notice the panicked blaring of a woolly mammoth. The saber's head whipped around in time to see Ellie being cornered against a huge redwood, another lion male slashing viciously at her front legs and one more snapping at Manny. But that momentary distraction gave his own opponent a chance to right himself and lung again. Diego dodged, but not before a claw caught him on the foreleg, sending blood—warm and sticky—coursing towards his paw. Snarling, the saber ducked a swipe that would have sliced his face to ribbons and scored a bloody line across his attacker's muzzle. The lion roared and reared over Diego in an attempt to claw his shoulders again. Diego took a risky gamble. Driving forwards, the saber butted his nose against the lion's stomach, forcing him to double over. The lion clawed the air as his prey pushed him over. Diego took that opportunity to rake his own claws across the lion's haunches at he tried to turn over.

Behind him, Diego could hear Ellie's fearful trumpets drowned out by another sound.

Manny's enraged bellowing shook the air. The raw fury of Ellie's mate made the earth shudder with every blow of his huge feet.

Blazing anger burned through Manfred's veins, his blood pounding in his ears. He had beaten his way past the lion who'd attacked him and slid between Ellie's assailant. The enraged bull had dealt his first opponent a hefty crack to the shoulder, but the lion was still standing and slashing. Every time the mammoth stomped his huge feet, the attacking lions moved, twin blurs of gold and black. One lion lashed out, roaring wildly, catching the mammoth in the leg. Crimson spattered across the redwood needles. Instead of stepping back, Manny charged forward, into the pain, and swung his massive tusks with shocking speed. But the lion was quicker. He dodged the blow, a tusk whistling inches over his head while the other saw his opportunity and lunged for his quarry's chest, hooked claws extended.


	3. The Pride of the Forest

The lion's triumphant roar was cut short when a smaller golden blur slammed into his unprotected back, roaring twice as fiercely. However, one of the male's huge paws slammed into Manny's chest, claws sinking deep, raking through the mammoth's flesh as he was forced to the ground.

Biting back a cry of agony, Manny backed away, pressing his petrified mate closer into the safety of the redwood trunk. Ignoring his wound, the mammoth bull turned his attention on his rescuer and was shocked even further.

Slashing at the lion male with chilling speed was a lioness, her teeth bared in a wicked snarl, and her golden eyes aflame. Time and time again she tore at his pelt. His brute strength pitted against her lightning swiftness made for a terrible sight. The other lion male was trying to fend off a lioness of his own. Manny glanced at Diego. His fight had also been interrupted. But by a pair of lionesses, smaller than the first two, but with the same deadly speed.

More roaring from the undergrowth made the mammoth bull's heart rate jump to another notch. The clearing was turned into a mass of writhing golden bodies, slashing claws, and snapping jaws when four more lions joined the mêlée.

Manny was suddenly aware that Diego was standing next to him, watching with wide eyes as the confusing scene unfolded.

It seemed that the lionesses (who had been joined by a young lion male) had ganged up on the three older males. It didn't take long for a turning point to arrive. The three males turned tail. Before they fled, one of them turned his wicked gaze towards Manny. Despite the furious rumble he let loose, ice ran down the bull's spine when he realized that the lion was staring hungrily at Ellie instead of him.

In the next moment, the lions were retreating into the forest, the younger male and two of his lionesses hard on their heels.

The stunned herd watched their assailant's gold and black striped bodies receded from view, their rescuers' victorious roars growing distant.

"There gone…" Ellie breathed, her tense body gradually relaxing.

"Yeah…" Sid agreed quietly. Slowly, the sloth emerged from behind the cover of the woolly mammoth female. His blue eyes were round with shock.

Diego, however, was looking ahead of the group. "Guys…" he called.

"We've got more problems," Manfred finished, his voice taught.

Ellie turned her head and muttered an: "Oh goodness…".

The 'possum brothers tried to shrink.

Sid chanced a peek around Manny's back leg.

Forming an intimidating semi-circle around the herd was the remaining five lionesses. Their golden pelts bore faint black striping along their backs. Arrogant eyes studied them, black tasseled tails flicked, a few were panting lightly…one to Diego's right licked her lips….

Manny recognized the one in the middle—a large sleek lioness with piercing eyes—as the one who'd beaten off his first attacker. It was clear by the way she held herself, and by the way the other lionesses always kept their heads lower than hers, that she was in charge when the male of the pride was absent. And he was…. The two who'd cut in one Diego's battle were standing to the right of her. They were small for their age, which couldn't have been very old, and were practically identical in every way. The other two lionesses were larger.

"We…thank you for helping us," Manny began, breaking the silence. "If you don't mind, we'll be on our way no—"

"I do not speak to food," cut in the commanding voice of the middle lioness. "I do not speak to food any more than a bison speaks to a blade of grass." She fixed the mammoth bull in her haughty gaze, glaring regally down her nose. Her lionesses to either side of her, gave the herd contemptuous looks.

Manfred's temper began to simmer. "Now look here, cat! I don't give the north end of a south-bound mastodon weather yo—"

"Silence, prey!" she snarled, flattening her ears. Her lionesses sensed the mammoth's aggression mounting and exposed their teeth, ready to sink their claws into any creature who threatened their leader.

"I do not speak with food!" she hissed again. Her golden stare snapped to Diego. "However, since we are not interested in your meat, I will speak to this lesser carnivore."

An infuriated rumble tore from the bottom of Manny's throat and he would have charged forward, had it not been for his mate. Ellie wrapped her trunk around one of his tusks to hold him back.

Manny's glare softened slightly when he turned to Ellie, confusion in his light brown eyes.

Ellie leaned close to him. "If it's Diego they want to talk to," she whispered in his ear, "then let them. What other choice do we have?" The mammoth female's gentile tone seemed to have an affect on her hot-blooded mate.

Slowly, the mammoth bull's anger subsided. He nodded, allowing his erect fur to lie flat on his shoulder blades and his ears to loose their threatening curve. Ellie nodded in return and allowed her trunk to slide from his tusk.

"Fine," Manfred muttered to Diego as he eyed the lionesses warily. "I guess you better start talken'."

The saber merely snorted. _Lesser carnivore, eh?_ "Alright," he called, his tone hardly friendly. "What in fur an' fangs do you want?"

The lead lioness sniffed. "Such gratitude to the creatures who saved your mangy skin," she snapped. "Although our intentions weren't to _save_ anyone."

"Then what _were_ your intentions, Missy?" Diego almost snarled the words. These lionesses were pretty high on themselves and prissiness had always rubbed his fur the wrong way.

"We were merely keeping intruders from stealing prey that is rightfully ours," glancing at Ellie as though she saw a juicy steak. Her gaze soon returned to Diego, "You just happened to get saved as well." The lioness paused to giver her chest fur a few licks. "You should count yourself lucky, saber-tooth cat. But," she sighed, looking exasperated; "I will overlook your rudeness this time. I am called Jasmine."

"My name is Diego. The mammoth bull here is Manny, his mate Ellie, the slo-"

"I am not interested in their names," Jasmine interrupted tartly. She paused, giving Diego a sideways look. "However, what I _am_ interested in is why a carnivore keeps his company with prey."

Diego's lip twitched, he hated this lioness more and more every second. "That's a funny question, cat. But I have a question of much higher importance."

Jasmine arched an arrogant eyebrow. "Oh do you?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well," she replied nonchalantly, "out with it. If it's so ghastly important."

The saber-tooth tilted his head to the side. "What I'm wondering, is how a bunch of such conceited lions could even allow a trio of rogue males to cross their border line? Was your dear king sleeping on the job?" Diego sneered.

At the "lesser carnivore's" insult, Jasmine pulled her lips back in a snarl, the other lionesses following suit. "Do not test me, saber-tooth," she hissed. "They are not your average lions, ignorant one. Have you not heard of the lion brothers Sol, Nolan, and Colin?"

Diego's sneer faded from his features, for he had indeed heard of these lion brothers. Even living in the northlands, one caught stories that floated up from the south. Stories like those of Sol, Nolan, and Colin. Those sort of stories were only whispered, as though those they spoke of might hear—even from many leagues away. The little that Diego knew about them was enough and the sabers fur bristled as he recalled every word. "Yes," he spoke, slowly, "I know of the brothers."

"And I do suppose you realize you are doomed?" Jasmine's ominous words hung over the clearing like an ill-omen, making icy fingers run through the herd's fur.

"Wait one minute," Manny rumbled. Ellie tried to warn her mate by tapping his shoulder, but he just continued stubbornly. "Who are these three and what do they want with us?"

Jasmine ignored him. Instead, passing Diego a haughty smirk, as though imagining the saber's gristly future.

"HEY!" Manny bellowed, his pale eyes suddenly blazing darkly. "Answer me you arrogant, stuck up, pin head!"

That grabbed the lioness's attention. Her enraged glare snapped to Manfred, her hooked claws digging into the ground. The lionesses around her hissed at the belligerent mammoth and lashed their tails.

Ignoring, his mate's warnings, Manfred went on. "There's something you're keeping from us, cat! What is it?! What are you not telling us, you counterfeit feline?!" By now, even Sid was tugging on his friend's fur, begging him not to take things too far.

Jasmine was shaking with rage. She rounded on Diego, snarling, "The mammoth is thicker than the redwood at his back!" Turning back to Manny, her golden eyes burning into his, she leered, "Tell the mammoth, saber-tooth, that I don't have to tell him the answer to his stupid question. She is standing right next to him."

Shock struck Manny like a slap in the face. Ellie? What did she have to do with this? However, the mammoth's surprise swiftly turned to aggression once more. "Stop beating around the bush, cat!" Manny growled, his voice dangerously low. "Tell me, right now," the mammoth stepped forwards, "wha—" He cut off short when pain exploded in his chest, making him stagger and gasp in misery.

"Manny!" Ellie and her brothers cried in unison, suddenly at his side.

"What's wrong, big guy?" Sid asked, his voice taught with fear.

In response, the broad-shouldered mammoth groaned and stumbled backwards to revealed a puddle of blood soaking into the redwood needles.

"Fur and fangs alive…" Diego muttered, shaking his head.

"Just a scratch…" Manfred wheezed, his mouth turning up at the corners for his mate's benefit. However, he could see her emerald eyes were filled with anguish.

Eyeing him and the pool of blood, Jasmine twitched her whiskers. "With a wound like that, the mammoth won't make very good time, saber-tooth," she intoned calmly. "Remember, while you are within our territory, you are fair game." And with that, she turned and padded off into the forest, her lionesses behind her. Soon, they disappeared—like ghosts—from view altogether in the dusk light, leaving no trace that they'd been there in the first place.

"G'bye to you too," Sid called into the shadows. Turning back to the herd, he put his hands on his hips, "Well they weren't too friendly."

"I'll say," Crash put in, his fur still fluffed out in anxiety.

Eddie nodded.

In a unanimous decision, the herd opted to rest in the clearing for the night. They'd had more than enough excitement for one day. Sid had wandered around, looking for a pair of rocks to strike fire with, Diego close by his side. Even though his saber friend was with him, every little noise made the sloth flinch and look around wildly. Crash and Eddie's evening games were put on hold and they munched on moths and beetles in silence, their eyes flicking around in paranoia.

"Manny, you'd better lay down and give that wound a rest. I'll take a double shift tonight. You need to sleep," Diego advised after taking a look at his friend's injury. The four gashes had all but stopped bleeding, but still, Manny didn't need to be over exerting himself.

The mammoth just rolled his eyes moodily, "Look Diego, I'm fine. Someone has to go on watch. Last night you were first, it's my turn tonight. I'm not laying down when there are psychotic lions out there."

"Well you won't be much good to us if you're all worn out and too hurt to fight, now will you."

Grumbling, Manny shot back, "Really? What about you? You've got a slash on your foreleg and punctures in your shoulders."

The saber-tooth tiger grinned, "Manny, c'mon. I've done worse than this," gesturing at his own wounds with his nose, "to you by _accident_." Diego gave a small chuckle, remembering several times his claws had unintentionally found their way into Manny's thick skin. "Besides," he continued, "my little scrapes don't have me staggering in pain when I make sudden movements."

Still, the stubborn mammoth protested. "This little scrape isn't near as bad as you seem to think it is. I've walked _miles_ with worse wounds."

Diego's gaze shifted towards the knotted scar on Manny's right shoulder, knowing that his friend was right about that…and why he was right.

"At any rate," Manny went on, "I'm not laying down. I can sti—"

"Oh why won't you just listen to Diego, you stubborn bull?!" Ellie blurted, her voice wavering.

Looking at his mate, his obstinate expression melted into concern when he realized she was crying. "Hey, hey…what's all this about?" he inquired gently, brushing tears away with the tip of his trunk. "What's going on?" he murmured, his light brown eyes suddenly caring.

"You just scared me there, that's all," she replied quietly, wrapping the end of her trunk tightly around his. "Seeing as you're the only Manny I've got."

Manny leaned in close and rested his head against hers as he breathed in her sweet scent. "I'm okay. It's just a couple of scratches a long way from my heart."

"Uh, Manny?" Diego put in. "It's four large gashes that are right _next to_ your heart."

The mammoth couple's tender moment took a pause at the saber's observation. "Diego," Manny sighed, "why don't you go pounce on Crash and Eddie for a moment, 'kay?"

Diego rolled his yellow-green eyes and stalked off towards the 'possum twins, who were asking Sid obnoxious questions while he coaxed a fire to life.

Turning back to Ellie, Manny asked, "Now, what was I talking about again?"

The mammoth female's ears flicked as she pondered this. "Oh…something about how you were going to give your wound a rest like Dr. Diego ordered and let the others take over the watch."

"Ellie," Manny tried to reason, "I have to pull my own weight around here, you know. And if I don—"

Gently, his mate stroked his jaw, closing his mouth. "Just for tonight," she whispered, "let Diego take your shift. He's fine with it." Gradually, Ellie's sweet-talking was beginning to persuade him, his stubbornness softening by the moment. Though, when Ellie gave him a pleading smile, his obstinacy was promptly forgotten.

"Okay," he relented, "But just for one night."

Giving her mate an affectionate thank you nuzzle, she led him to the crackling fire Sid had built. They chose a patch of soft grass to make their bed. Manny slowly laid down next to Ellie, wincing as his chest wound sent pain shooting through his muscles. "Ow," he mumbled. He settled down onto his knees, leaning into Ellie's warm side, settling down into the grass.

"So," Manny grumbled, looking at the saber across the fire from him, "are you going to tell me who these psychopath lions are, or are you going to keep me in the dark?" Diego was about to answer his mammoth friend when he cut the saber-tooth off. "_Actually_, I kind of like being in the dark, Diego," the mammoth stated, giving him a false smile, "I'm kind of getting used to it. Like the time we were on the ice flows and you just failed to tell me that—"

"Some one's got a tem-per," Sid sang quietly to himself as he poked the blaze with a long stick.

However, Manny paid him no heed and rambled on. "Or perhaps the time when you forgot to tell me that a pair of dire wolves were tracking us in the Western Hills. Any of this ringing any bells? Hmmm?"

"Manny," Diego growled. "Shut-up."

The mammoth just sighed through his trunk.

"Alright," the saber-tooth tiger relented. Laying down and making himself comfortable, he gave his chest fur a few licks and began his tale.


	4. The Three Brothers

"I first herd the story several years ago, before I met any of you. An old saber female told it to me. Sol, Nolan and Colin were…er, _are_ three lion brothers who aren't quite right in the head, if you catch my meaning.

"I'd never known they were real until today. I thought they were just some myth saber mothers used to scare their children to bed with. They were just so far-fetched. Take this for example: The old saber said that the three brothers had trapped three entire herds of antelope in a box canyon and slaughtered them all, just for the sake of killing. And then she told me how they killed a mastodon male they'd set their sights on. By killing his mate, not even for food, they got him when he came seeking revenge. I've heard other stories as well, but they're all alike. Full of killing and murder.

"When Jasmine told us who they were I wondered why they chose to attack us in a clearing where there was room enough for a mammoth to fight. Then it hit me: that was a _test_, guys. They never truly intended to kill us and they weren't using their full strength. They wanted to know what they were up against. That in itself just goes to show you how calculating and cold-blooded these lions are. And that they will stop at nothing to kill a target once they've picked one."

No one spoke, the crackle of the fire and the chirring of nighttime crickets were the only sounds. Sid stared grimly into the blaze, his poking stick gripped tightly in his claws. While Diego had talked, Ellie's trunk had unconsciously found its way around her mate's. Crash and Eddie shifted nervously. Manny was busy thinking. Finally, he broke the chilled silence.

"So, what about Ellie?" he asked quietly, swallowing hard. He already knew the answer, but he prayed he was wrong.

"Yeah," Eddie inquired.

Crash looked over at the saber. "What's this got to do with our sis, Diego?"

Diego dug his claws into the ground and his words were forced. "Ellie's the target, Manny. She's what their after."

"What?!" the mammoth female blurted, her green eyes wide and frightened. "Why would they want me?"

Shaking his head, Diego replied: "Who knows Ellie. If they were normal predators, they'd probably want you for food. A pregnant mammoth female would supply them with a meal for a long time. But they don't think like normal predators, so it's impossible to tell."

Ellie shuddered and rested her head on Manfred's shoulder. Trying to block the sound of roaring lions out of her mind, she closed her eyes. Her mate gave the tip of her trunk a little squeeze, silently telling her that he would protect her and their unborn calf, that he would never let them die.

Manny was staring out into the forest, as though he saw something other than the now oppressive darkness of the looming trees. "Crash, Eddie," he called across the flames. Both 'possums' ears flicked forwards. "I need you two to do something for me…and for you sister."

"Sure, Manny."

"Sure thing.

Looking off into the forest, the woolly mammoth replied: "I need you two to do a bit of scouting. Since night time is the safest for 'possums, I want you to search for the quickest way out of these woods, ask around, see if any of the locals know anything. We need to get out of here as fast as possible."

"But Manny," Diego put in, "don't you thing the brothers will be expecting us to come out the quickest way?"

Manny nodded. "I'd thought of that, but if we can get out in the open, they won't get the chance to get close enough to ambush us. If we can get to the plains, they might leave us alone."

"But if they know that, they might try to find a way back into the woods."

"I don't think so. That pride's lion knows they're a threat, he'll be on double guard duty now."

"But if we walk out of their territory and we're still in the woods, they'll be there."

"Then we'll have to make sure that we stay in their territory till we reach the plains, eh?" Manny cast a glance at Crash and Eddie, silently telling them to make a mental note.

"Although," Diego went on, "they know that we know that. So they probably also know that we know that they know."

"So they'll try to pull_ that _trick on us," Manny finished.

"So we shouldn't be where they think we think we should be."

"And we should be where they think we think we _shouldn't_ be."

"Exactly," Diego concluded, nodding.

"Can you two handle that?" Manny asked, turning back the opossums.

Crash and Eddie gave the mammoth a blank look.

"I'm lost," Sid declared.

The mammoth and saber both rolled their eyes.

"Meaning," Ellie explained for them, "that we're lookin' for a twenty over forty-two and a fifty-seven so we don't get eighty-sixed."

Now it was Manfred and Diego's turn to look blank.

Both brothers saluted sharply—though weather seriously or mockingly, Manny couldn't tell—turned towards, their brother-in-law, barked out a brusque, "Sir, yes sir!" and, quick as a flash, scampered up a redwood. Gone.

"What in tusk's name did that slew of gibberish mean?" a baffled Manny inquired to his smiling mate.

"It's just a buncha' code lingo me an' my brothers used when we were scouting ahead for our possum clan. Though now I realize I'm a woolly mammoth, any nearby predators probably died laughen' at the sight of my attempting to sneak around."

"I can imagine," Diego grinned. The saber rose and stretched like a huge housecat. "You guys better get some sleep while you can," he advised, as he settled onto his haunches, preparing to take his double shift.

"Good night, everyone," Sid yawned as he snuggled into a scratchy looking bed of bark and redwood needles. Within moments the sloth was asleep.

"He always goes t' sleep fast," Ellie commented as she made herself more comfortable at Manny's side.

Sid rolled onto his back and let loose a wheezing snore.

"Yep," Manny agreed quietly, his own eyelids beginning to feel heavy.

Ellie gave him a teasing nudge. "Yeah, an' so d' you."

"No I don't," her mate mumbled, already fending off the heavy curtains of sleep.

"Oh yes y' do," she whispered, rubbing his cheek with hers and affectionately stroking the tip of his trunk. The mammoth bull gave a low hum of contentment, allowing his eyes to finally slip closed. Gradually, his tired body relaxed and his grasp on his mate's trunk slackened.

Ellie smiled in satisfaction. "Just like that."

Diego chuckled quietly. "How under-handed of you," he joked to the mammoth female, "playing on his biggest weakness like that."

Ellie cocked her head to the side, "What? Sleep?"

"No," Diego grinned, looking over at her, "_you_, my fine mammoth female."

Ellie snorted jestingly, "I thought his biggest weakness was his stomach?"

At that, the saber-tooth laughed a bit louder. "Nope. Although I'm sure his stomach is a close second, his biggest soft spot is you and _your stomach_. Or rather, what's in it."

Ellie just smiled bashfully and nestled her head into her mate's thick chestnut fur. "Well, g'night, Diego," she called softly.

"Good night, Ellie," he returned politely. He watched the mammoth female give Manny's jaw one last sentimental nudge and then allow her eyes to gently close. Soon, she was lulled to sleep by the warmth of the fire and the steady thump Manny's deep heartbeat.


	5. Making Trouble

A/N: Alright. You guys have been so patient with my annoying cliffhangers (hehehehehe!) and my slow posting (I don't have the Internet at my house and the retarded blockers on the school's Internet doesn't like very much) that I've decided to reward my fellow IA (Ice Age, FYI) fans with a longer chapter. Enjoy and remember to comment!

Soothing black waves washed over Manny as his mate coaxed him to the sweet relaxation of sleep. As soon as they took hold, he didn't fight them, allowing himself to sink deeper. The throbbing pain in his chest and leg washed away, until unconsciousness had erased all his worries and he could finally rest….

Though suddenly, everything turned cold. Fear crept up his spine and twisted his stomach in knots. Something was wrong…horribly wrong. The mammoth forced his eyes open…and then wished he hadn't.

Surrounding him were grotesque human faces, their lips pulled back in snarls as they yelled, their stone spear tips glinting wickedly. A noose of agony tightened around his shoulder, threatening to force him to his knees. Then the shattering sounds hit him, humans screeching, a mammoth blaring in fear, the panicked wails of a calf. Manny's head whipped around to see a woolly mammoth female, huddled against a cliff face, holding her frightened calf close to her.

_Move! _his mind yelled. But his legs would not obey him and he stood there—petrified in horror. The mammoth female's terrified eyes met his and she screamed his name, begging for help. Manny couldn't help them, so struck was he with unspeakable dread.

Without warning, the world went black and the smell of blood was everywhere. The pain in Manfred's shoulder spread through his body, burning through his veins like liquid fire. He tried to yell, but the sound that came was not his own.

"Hey! What's goin' on?!"

"Oh my gosh! Manny!"

"Wake up!"

"YIKES! That's hot!"

"Manny!"

_"WAKE UP!"_

Manny's eyes snapped open, his breath coming in ragged gasps. His fur was damp with cold sweat. Hovering over him was a pair of yellow-green eyes and their owner: a tawny saber-tooth tiger. "Manny," the saber called, "Manny, are you okay?"

The mammoth's second realization: he was sprawled out on his side and his shoulder was still in flames. "Diego…?" he mumbled through the agony. "What happened?" Manny could see the still glowing embers of Sid's fire scattered helter-skelter across the clearing. Sid was furiously dusting ashes and sparks out of his grey fur.

"Well," Diego cast a troubled glance around their camp, "where do you want me to start?"

"Manny!" Ellie cried, suddenly at his side, her green eyes wide with concern. "What on earth was that? You scared us to death!"

"It was just a nightmare, Ellie," Diego assured her, his eyes never leaving his friend's. But the he didn't have to look Manny in the eyes to know that it wasn't just any nightmare. It was the only nightmare Manny ever had. Sid knew it too and the sloth gazed at the mammoth mournfully.

Realizing that Manfred needed a bit of alone time, Diego looked towards Sid. "Hey, Lord of the Flame," he called, using Sid's old self-conceived nickname, "you've still got a bunch of ash on your back."

"Huh? But I alrea—"

Diego winked.

"Oh!" Sid cried, catching on. "Thanks. Hey Ellie, could you help me with this spot I can't reach?"

"Sure thing, Sid," the ever-helpful female replied, walking over to the sloth.

Diego turned back to Manny. "How's you're shoulder?" he asked in an undertone.

Manny merely grunted in response, giving an unconscious shudder.

"Are you gonna' to be okay, big guy?"

"Yeah…yeah, I'll be fine," the mammoth mumbled. Diego looked skeptical, but to his credit, said nothing.

In truth, Manny didn't know if he'd be okay. The nightmare kept playing, over and over, in his head. They were all horrible memories he'd never truly get rid of. When he'd met Ellie, he had secretly hoped in the farthest corner of his mind that he could finally fill the empty place in his life, the shred of his heart that had gone missing long ago. In deciding to devote himself to his newfound love, he'd walked away from his heartbroken past. The nightmares disappeared.

But now…the old fears were back and the single image that haunted him the most was his last glimpse of the mammoth female. He'd seen her tormented features many times before, but _her_ eyes had been deep brown…never emerald green.

The next morning was sunny. Sid could tell by the way the dappled light warmed his pelt and how fresh the world seemed to smell, that it was going to be a good day. Providing that bloodthirsty lions didn't lunge out of the bushes—roaring up a storm—and rip everyone to shreds.

The sloth opened his eyes slowly, blinking away the last blurry traces of sleep. To his surprise, the clearing was empty save for him and the dying coals of the fire (which he'd rebuilt). Sid sat up. He was used to being the last one to rise, but usually _someone_ was in the herd's camp. And surely his friends wouldn't go off and leave him when the forest was teeming with carnivores that would just love a tasty sloth for breakfast.

"Diego?" he called hesitantly. He pushed himself to his feet and looked around. "Manny…? Ellie…? Guys?" The confused sloth turned full circle. The ancient forest was silent around him. Too silent. No birds were singing and the looming redwoods made him feel even smaller than usual. The strange quiet and the absence of his friends were beginning to make him feel a tad jittery.

Somewhere, a twig snapped, causing Sid to jump and whirl around. "Whozzat?!" he called, his blue eyes wide. Suddenly, thoughts of attacking mini-sloths flicked through his mind, making him quiver from nose to tail. "He-He-Hello…?" he mumbled, his voice small and shaking. "Is a-a-a-anyone th-the—Oomph!"

Sid found himself flat on his stomach, some unspeakably heavy force practically crushing his back

"Morning, fungus fur," purred an amused voice.

The sloth realized the tremendous weight was Diego. Lifting his head and spitting out moss, Sid returned the greeting in a strangled sounding wheeze. "G'morning, buck-tooth."

The saber lifted his paws from his friend's back, who rolled over and stood back up, wincing. "You know," the sloth groaned, rubbing his backside ruefully, "there's gotta' be a less painful way for you to tell me good morning."

"Aw, c'mon. This way's much more fun." Diego grinned, bringing his nine-inch canines mere centimeters from Sid's face.

Sid screwed up his nose in disgust. "Eww. Diego, what did you have for breakfast?"

"You really don't want to know, herbivore."

"Oh…" Sid replied, realizing again just what a saber-tooth tiger's meal usually entailed. "So," he began, feeling the need to change the subject, "where's our two an' a half mammoths?"

Diego shrugged. "Off somewhere attending to mammoth business, I don't know. Probably eating."

Sid fidgeted, twiddling his blunt claws. "An'…that nightmare Manny had last night…it was _that one_…wasn't it."

The saber nodded, his yellow-green eyes turning sad.

"I'd hoped that those were long gone," Sid sighed miserably. "He hasn't had one since…since…" he faded off, scratching his neck as he tried to recollect.

"Since Ellie came along," Diego finished.

"An' now their back…why?"

Diego shrugged as he gazed out into the forest, lost in thought. "You really can't be sure…."

Time passed in pensive silence….

"So, what _did_ you have for breakfast?"

"How old are you?"

The question caught Manny off guard and made him blink for a moment as he paused his meal. He was used to Ellie's out-of-the-blue questions. Ever since she'd discovered that she was a woolly mammoth instead of a 'possum, she'd asked Manny endless questions about mammoth kind. Most of them had something to do with him. "Well," he pondered this question for a moment, "I'm pretty sure I'm about…thirty-three or…or maybe I'm thirty-four…I don't remember." Manny shook his head. He'd never kept very good count. "Why do you ask?"

Ellie shrugged and swallowed the evergreen branch she'd been munching on. "When my mother found me, she didn't know how old I was. So I don't really know my age. But I think I'm 'bout the same as you."

"Mm." Manny grunted in response, his mouth full. He ripped up more of the leafy shrub he was working on and stuffed it in his mouth, crunching.

"How long to mammoth's usually live, Manny?" came Ellie's next question.

The mammoth bull arched an eyebrow, wondering where she was going with these questions. "About to seventy or eighty," he replied after swallowing. "Ninety if you're lucky."

"That's good."

Now it was Manny's turn to ask a question. "Why are you asking all these questions about age?"

"Just curious," Ellie replied, brushing the topic aside. The mammoth female looked up and around her, heaving a large sigh. "Amazing, aren't they?"

"What?"

"These tree," she answered, gesturing to the massive redwoods around them with her trunk. The morning light was making flecked patches on the loamy ground. When you looked up, you could barely see the blue tint of the sky, making the giant trees seem like immense and eternal pillars, holding aloft a deep green ceiling. "They're so big! Have you ever seen trees this big?"

Manny lifted his gaze and shook his head. "No, I never have." They truly were amazing. When the herd had first entered the woods, everyone had been awed at their immense size. Walking through this cathedral of trees was a humbling experience, even for a mammoth. Just knowing that their towering kind lived for hundreds of years was enough to make you feel insignificant, as though you're relative split-second on this planet was trivial in the light of the bigger picture.

Ellie was still looking at the trees and she felt one's bark—rough and red-hued—with her trunk, she was suddenly overcome with despair. Suddenly the broad trees and thick undergrowth began looking more and more like a maze. A deadly maze with no escape. "Oh, Manny," she murmured, "how did we get into this mess." Looking over at her mate she shook her head sadly. "And how will we get out?"

Manny lifted his eyes to Ellie's. He knew she looked to him for comfort. After all, he was her mate, her protector, and the bull of their budding family. But he could not lie to her, not when they could very well meet their ends. She needed the truth. He took a deep breath, his own heart filled with sadness. "I don't know we wound up in this fiasco, Ellie, and I can only pray that there is a way out." Leaving his meal, he stepped slowly towards her. "But I can promise you one thing," he went on, his tone as serious as his gaze, "I don't care what it takes, I will do anything and _everything _to make sure this herd comes out alive."

A quiet smile lit Ellie's expression as hope stirred within her. "I know you will," she whispered, embracing her mate warmly, "I know."

But another thorn pierced Manfred's chest, making him remember when he'd promised the same to another he had so deeply loved.

Suddenly, a strange sound caused both mammoths ears to lift. Manny looked around, his expression as confused as Ellie's.

"What on earth is _that_?" the mammoth female exclaimed when the sound came again. Once more it sounded: a vibrating rumble that built up into a furious roar. It echoed eerily through the forest, bouncing off of trees and causing several swallows to flee their bushes.

Walking hesitantly around the small clearing, Manfred finally pinpointed the direction. But what was the source? Another rumble shook the air, louder this time. And the sound of it…filled with rage…. The fur on Manny's shoulder blades began to stand stiff. "Ellie," he said quietly, looking around his shoulder, "go back to camp and stay with Diego…_now_."

The mammoth female didn't need to be told twice, she turned and stormed back the way she and her mate had come, fear twisting her stomach into knots.

Back in the clearing, Manny began walking cautiously in the opposite direction, his trunk forward to scent for danger, every muscle steeled for a fight.

A flock of crows, cawing raucously overhead, startled him. When he looked up, he noticed they were flying in the direction of the noise that came once again. Were they fleeing from danger? Or perhaps rushing to be first in scavenging the dead remains of a predator's meal? The second suddenly seemed more likely when another infuriated call rent the air. Manny charged.

He didn't have long to go, for the ground dropped away without warning into a steep slope, causing him to grind to a startled halt. Looking ahead, Manny's heart caught in his throat.

Down below, the trees stopped to reveal a dry streambed. Inside was a mammoth female, no more than thirteen or fourteen, and six lionesses. The lions had her pinned where rocks had fallen, creating a tapered dead end. The banks, though not very deep, its walls were high enough to prevent the female's escape. They slashed and clawed at her, hunger driving their vicious attack.

Blood was flowing in dozens of placed on the young mammoth, but on she fought, her eyes wild with fury. The lionesses weren't completely unscathed either. Some of them limped, while one could barely stand. Manny noted that there was wariness in their actions.

In a flash of movement, one lioness—bold with youth—leaped. The young mammoth tried to dodge the big cat, but the blow hit home, slicing a deep gash in her right shoulder. Bellowing in agony, she wrapped her trunk around the lioness's middle and ripped her from her shoulder, throwing her into her pridemates. On the mammoth female battled. But she couldn't go one forever. Exhaustion was already beginning to slow her swinging tusks. Soon a lionesses teeth would find their mark.

Without knowing it, instinct pulled Manny forwards and took him over the hill and down its sheer slant, his feet digging in as he skid down. He found himself standing behind the lionesses. Noticing the look of shock on the mammoth female's face, Manny leapt into the fray, knocking a lioness tail over head with a tusk. Suddenly, the lioness realized that _they_ were now the one's cornered.

Their roars turned into horrified yowls and screeches as they fought off the enraged mammoth female at one end, and Manny on the other. They began scrabbling up the steep hill and the opposite shale bank in a desperate retreat. Manfred had no intention of getting blood on his tusks that day and he allowed them their hasty departure.

But the mammoth female, had her own gory agenda. Rumbling furiously, she singled out the lioness who'd shredded into her shoulder and tore her from the rock. Soon she had the feline, screaming in terror, on the ground and was about to take her bloody revenge when the trunk of another mammoth abruptly stopped her tusk.

When the mammoth female looked up, the wild rage in her almond-brown eyes took Manfred aback. They bored into his own mercilessly. There was a fractured look to them that he easily recognized. The sheer intensity of those contracted pupils and the vicious fire they held was all too familiar. In an instant he knew why.

Interrupting his thoughts, the mammoth female swatted his trunk off of her tusk. "What's the big idea?!" she growled harshly as she watched the lioness scamper away with her fur straight in fear.

"They've had enough, no need to shed any more blood," Manny rumbled back.

Temper still blazing, the mammoth female spat, "Oh really? Well these aren't birth marks, pal!" pointing a trunk-tip to her cuts. "And this," gesturing to the blood still dripping from her fur, "isn't because the red is just _my color_! They were intending to _kill_ me and _devour_ me!"

"Hey, hey, hey." Manny tried to calm the seething female, figuring she'd just had a little shake-up. "Everything's fine. They're gone and they probably have no intention of eating you now. It's done."

But she wouldn't be pacified and she lashed back with another vehement remark. "Yeah, an' if you hadn't stuck your trunk in my business, Ida' had 'em running long before!"

Manny was about to reply with a flabbergasted, "Excuse me?", when a voice from behind called his name.

"Manny!"

Turning, the mammoth bull was further shocked to see Ellie, Sid, and Diego coming down the dry streambed. "Ellie!" he cried, "I told you to stay at camp!"

"An' while you charge off into goodness knows what kind of danger, I'm just supposed to sit around?" Ellie rejoined quickly. "Besides," she gestured to Diego with her trunk, "the saber insisted."

Manny gave his friend a glare, silently demanding why the he'd brought his extraordinarily pregnant mate to a possible skirmish. All he got in reply was an apologetic grin. Something told the bull that it wasn't entirely the saber's fault and moved his attention to Sid. The sloth held up his hands as though to say: leave me out of this, friend.

Irate growling from the top of the shallow ravine, made everyone's head whip towards the shale bank. Lining the top were the same six lionesses…plus Jasmine. She gazed at the herd with eyes like twin pieced of cold, gilded gems, but they turned even icier when they encountered the mammoth female.

"Why Jasmine!" Diego exclaimed with mock happiness, "It's been too long! You're looking as conceited as ever!"

The lioness curled her lip in contempt. "The mammoth bull's crude manners haven't improved, saber."

Diego snorted. "You aren't exactly the poster mammal for courtesy and graciousness, either, your worshipfullness."

Jasmine ignored his comment—though the rest of her lionesses were shooting the saber hateful glares—and continued. "It isn't enough that you have brought the dreaded brothers into our forest, but you must defend this berserker female as well."

"That's _Miss._ Berserker Female to you, whiskerface!" the young female spewed.

Lioness—though bruised and bloody—bared their teeth in response to the aggressive mammoth.

Jasmine remained unruffled and said coolly to Diego, "Again I must remind a mammoth that I do _not_ speak to _prey_."

The mammoth female flicked blood from her cheek and gave a deep rumble to the lionesses. "Oh yeah, whiskerface? Well how 'bout talking to the ivory?!" The young mammoth then lowered her head, displaying her tusks. "Does that sound appealing to ya'?!"

Jasmine curled her lip again and looked regally down her nose. "We would happily fill our bellies with her flesh, wouldn't we ladies." Around her, her lionesses hissed and scraped stone with eager claws outstretched. "But" she went on, "certain troublemakers are determined to run up their debt..." With that last statement, she fixed Manny in her golden-eyed glare.

The mammoth bull was about to spit back some hot-blooded retort, when he was cut off…yet again.

"Oh really?!" the mammoth female growled, giving her tusks a shake. "You wanna' tango one more time?! I'll kick your yellow rear from here to nex—"

Just as she was about to charge, Manny grabbed her tail and stopped her abruptly, pulling her backwards.

"What's your issue?!" she yelled, her brown eyes gone amber with fury.

Manny let go. When the young mammoth was about to charge again, he blocked her with his own broad shoulders. He gave her a glare that would have withered anyone else. She just stared back defiantly. "Ok, lets get something straight," he began, his voice dangerously low, "You," he poked the tip of his trunk in the female's face, "just _chill _for a sec! And _you guys_," he turned his attention to the group of lionesses (who were still pretending to ignore him), his tone no friendlier, "I thank you all very much for chasing those psychotic lions away. It saved me the trouble of kicking their cans." His voice abruptly rose again, "But I'm not running up any sort of debt. We didn't ask you to help us. According to you, you weren't helping us at all. You were "defending your territory". Also, what sort of honorable creature would I be if I didn't lend a tusk one of, my own kind, hmm?"

"One with much less of a chance of getting chewed out later!" the mammoth female spat behind him.

Manfred made a point of ignoring her.

The lionesses followed suit. Jasmine narrowed her eyes, secretly pondering.

Manny's words had hit some button in each of the lions with his use of the word 'honor'. The one idea that surrounded everything lions did was this key word. "The mammoth bull speaks the truth," Jasmine grudgingly admitted to Diego, "But do not presume that we shall not be tracking you and your...herd until you have left our territory." She leaned forward, licking her lips slightly. "You are all still fair game."

"We'll remember that," Diego growled, inclining his head only the slightest bit.

"Make sure you do." Jasmine inclined her head a little as well. With that, she and her pride picked up and again left in utter silence. Only the warbling calls of far-off birds disturbed the silence of the redwood forest.

"Yeesh, those females still scare the fur off me," Sid shivered, twiddling his heavy claws nervously.

"I have a slight feeling we haven't seen the last of those insane feminists," Diego growled, shaking his head.

Manny grunted in agreement. "Well, it'll be their mistake if they attack us." He sighed and gave their surroundings one last reassuring glance. "We better get going. The sooner we get back to camp, the better." With that, he began walking down the streambed, the rest of the herd trailing in his wake.

The mammoth female, however, had other ideas. "Hang on, just one minute, you!"

"Who?" Sid asked dumbly as they all stopped to look at her.

"**YOU**!" she snarled, singling out Manny with her trunk.

Heaving another sigh, he walked back, taking his own sweet time. "What?" he grumbled when he stood in front of her.

"Where do you get the gall to barge into someone else's fights?!"

"What did you want me to do?" Manny growled. "Sit back and watch you get killed?"

"Good grief," Sid whispered to Diego.

"Yeah, no joke," the saber murmured back, "It's like listening to Manny argue with himself."

"I wasn't going to get killed!" she snapped.

"Well you weren't exactly winning—"

"Yeah, well, I wasn't losing either!"

Manny grumbled irately for a moment, his eyes narrowing. "You were flagging...badly. Sooner than later they would have worn you down and would have sank their fangs in your belly. Boom. End."

"Well thanks for the help I _did not_ need! If you'll excuse me, I have places to go!" she rumbled. Pushing rudely past Manfred, she passed the rest of the herd and stalked off.

But the sharp smell of blood and the crimson trail she left told Manny that she wouldn't get far. He turned around to watch her progress, a smug grin on his face.

Limping heavily, it took only five steps before her right leg gave out like a weak sapling and sent her to her knees with a growl of aggravation.

"You were saying...?" Manny called.

Glaring daggers over her shoulder, the young mammoth attempted to rise. Leg by leg, she got up. For a moment she stood there and tottered, her head obviously light from blood-loss. She fell forwards with a thud, followed by a muted groan.

Manny couldn't tell weather that was from pain or frustration. He waited a moment, expecting her to roll onto her side in defeat. To his surprise, she struggled upward again, her feet pawing feebly at the loamy earth. Once more, her leg crumpled beneath her and she toppled to the ground. "Are you dead yet?" he hollered. Manny had to strain his ears to hear the weak reply of: "You wish..."

The mammoth bull sighed in irritation and was about to walk towards her, when someone else beat him to it.

Ellie trod forward, shaking her head as she did so. Was she the _only_ mammoth that wasn't so stubbornly proud? This was only the second member of her species she'd seen and she was beginning to get the impression that she was still a daisy in a field of wild roses—that came complete with thorns. When she was reached the wounded female, she nudged her as gently as she could onto her side. A louder moan of agony rose from the stricken mammoth. "You're a very foolish young thing, y' know," Ellie murmured to her, leaning down, "wanting to take on a lion pride like that."

"I have nothing to loose," the mammoth wheezed hoarsely, her eyes closed in pain.

Ellie cocked her head to the side, wondering what on earth she could mean. She brushed it away for now with a shake of her head. "What's your name?" she inquired gently, trying to inspect her wound without feeling nauseous.

Dragging in a shuddering breath, the mammoth female's eyes cracked open. Ellie suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for her. Her brown eyes were unfocused and clouded with pain. They threatened to close again.

Leaning closer Ellie whispered for a second time: "What's your name, young one?" She barely made out the female's reply.

"Morgan…" she breathed, pressing blackness pulling her eyelids lower. "My name…is Morgan…."

A/N: Okay, okay. So I snuck a Solo joke in there. Maybe all you Star Wars fans caught it…maybe you didn't….


	6. Morgan of the Tundra

"And she's going…going…gone," Manfred commented dryly as he watched Morgan's dizzy eyes succumb to unconsciousness.

Ellie hadn't realized her mate was beside her until he'd spoken. "Poor creature," she sighed, pushing a few strands of Morgan's wild head-hair back.

"Poor sharp-tongued little snot," he went on sarcastically.

Before Ellie could reprimand him, Diego snorted. "Sounds like a mammoth calling a mastodon woolly, to me."

"Yeah," Sid agreed, walking to Morgan's side. "I never thought I'd see the day when someone could out-argue you, big guy."

Manny grumbled in annoyance.

"So how are Crash and Eddie gonna' know that camp moved," Ellie inquired as she watched Diego sniff the senseless mammoth's wound.

"What?!" her mate blurted, staring at her with wide eyes. "Why would we move camp?!"

Ellie, Sid, and Diego pointed at Morgan.

The mammoth bull could only gape at the trio. "You're kidding…right…?"

Ellie frowned. "Manny," she chided, "we can't just leave her here. She'll _die_ if we do."

"Besides," Sid added. "_You_ just _saved_ her."

Manny lowered his head to look more directly at his sloth friend, poking his trunk in his face. "I seem to be remembering that saving another certain little annoying creature—"

"Who turned out to be a best friend…" Sid reminded, tapping Manny's trunk with a blunt claw.

"He's got a point, mammoth," Diego purred in amusement.

The bull just rumbled to himself.

"Then it's decided," Ellie declared, giving her still frowning mate a winning smile. She grabbed Sid by his middle and swung him onto her shoulders.

"Oof! What's the idea, Ellie?"

"Well," she explained cheerfully, her step a little lighter than normal, "we can't just let that gash get infected, now can we?"

Sid leaned over to look at the mammoth female, "No but…how do we haul water?"

Ellie just smiled secretively and replied with a bemusing, "I'll show you."

"Guess I better go after them," sighed Diego as he began to pad after the duo.

"No," Manny interrupted gruffly, cutting the saber-tooth off with a huge leg. He looked over his shoulder. "I'll go, you stay."

Grinning mischievously at his mammoth friend, the saber taunted, "You just don't want to be here if she wakes up, do ya'?"

Grumbling once again, Manfred stalked off stubbornly. "Don't you start pushing my buttons too!" he groused.

Diego shook his head and sat back on his haunches, smiling. Looking over at the unconscious mammoth beside him, his smile broadened. Never had he seen any creature capable of holding his (or her) own with Manfred in a battle of wills.

The female's fur was a light russet, somewhere between Manny's chestnut and Ellie's ginger, but with plenty of red shot through. What's more, her fur was thicker and rougher in texture than even Manny's.

Giving Morgan a closer look he found, to his surprise, that the bottoms of her feet were laced and crisscrossed with long scars. He one gave a sniff and flicked out a slender claw. Carefully, he pried a small stone out of the thick fur between her toes. Scrutinizing the pebble with his sharp eyes, he realized that it was granite…mountain rock. That stone could have only come from the Northern Mountains, or as sabers tended to call them, the Land Fangs. Only two places existed any farther north: the tundra and the ice cap. Judging by her appearance—thick fur and a stocky build to trap in heat, a coarse, freeze resistant pelt, long eyelashes that blocked the sun's brutal glare off the ice, wide feet built for traveling through snow, and tusks with the bottoms worn smooth—were all the sure signs of a tundra dweller. Diego had only crossed them once in his life and that had been as a small cub, dangling from his mother's jaws by the scruff of his neck. He didn't remember the journey, but gazing at them from a distance, he'd never seen any land look more forbidding.

Gazing back at Morgan, he noticed that her marked feet weren't the only scarred areas. Several crossed her shoulders and one healed over burn marred the back of her left foot. _This one sure has led an eventful life._ But she was so young. How could any creature of her age get so banged up from within the protection of a herd? _But wait,_ he thought, sniffing her fur. There was no trace of other mammoths on her. Nothing but her own musky scent and the moss she had slept in the previous night. _Surely she…._ Wasn't a…loner…? As far as mammoths went, you heard of, or perhaps saw, loner bulls—those old and experienced enough in the harsh ways of the wild to survive on their own. Manfred had been a strict loner for several years, shunning any of his own kind in trade for solitude. But you _never_ heard of a loner female…_never._

Sid dipped another large chunk of moss in the pool, bubbles tickling the palm of his hand as he squeezed the air out of it. Pulling out the dripping green mass, he promptly rolled it in redwood bark and needles, quickly stopping the dribbling. Then, the sloth waddled over to Manny and placed it in his coiled trunk atop of all the others. A few paces over, Ellie was searching carefully underneath bushes and around trees for yarrow and marigolds.

When she was younger and lived with her 'possum clan, her mother had taught her the healing properties of many herbs. All female 'possums were instructed in these things, just as males were educated in scouting and other such pursuits. Several times when living with her unorthodox herd had she mentally thanked her dear mother for instructing her in these subjects.

Manny had to admit; the moss trick wasn't half bad. In fact, he thought it was pretty clever. Where his mate had learned it, he could only guess. But he wasn't very confident about the marigolds. He'd eaten marigolds many times and that never seemed to help any of his scrapes or scratches. Yarrow he knew was just plain disgusting. So he had learned, trying out new food as a weanling calf. But the thought of forcing the foul-tasting leaves down Morgan's throat sounded so much fun it made him smile mischievously. _That'll make her shut-up._

"What're you grinnin' at?" Ellie asked, her foraging complete.

Manny's smirk broadened. "You'll see." He turned and began walking (still limping slightly) back to the new camp, leaving Ellie and Sid to ponder that last mysterious note as they trailed behind him.

Sid cast Ellie an inquisitive look. She just shrugged in return.

Stepping forwards, the mammoth female fell into stride with her mate. "What's th' cause for such sudden high spirits?"

"Oh…nothen'," Manny replied. "Just the thought of stuffing that yarrow down Morgan's big mouth just brightened my day."

A shocked expression crossed Ellie's face. Her ears flicked in confusion. She looked at the yarrow and marigold in her trunk and did something that shocked Manny to no end. She laughed. She laughed hard, her sides shaking with mirth. Finally, she and her perplexed mate had to stop as she leaned against his shoulder for support, her amusement slowly dying into giggles.

"What on earth tickled your fur?" Sid asked as he took the healing plants she passed him. With her trunk free, she was able to wipe away tears of hilarity.

"Oh…oh…no-no-nothing! Just…" Ellie looked over at her mate, still about to crack up, "You really thought we were gonna' _feed_ her this stuff?"

"Uh…" said Manny dumbly, feeling awkward, "yeah…."

With his last embarrassed word, she couldn't hold it in any longer. Ellie exploded with yet more gales of laughter, causing her mate's expression to fall even more.

"Well," he commented regretfully, "that sure rains on my parade."

Diego's ears pricked up and his yellow-green eyes slid open when the familiar smell of mammoth and sloth entered his senses, heralding the arrival of Ellie, Manfred, and Sid. Staring at the load of moss clumps in Manny's trunk, he arched an inquisitive eyebrow. All he got in reply was a passing shrug from the broad-shouldered mammoth.

Waving the yarrow in under Diego's nose, Sid asked, "Know what this is, buck-tooth?"

The saber curled his lip in disgust and snorted to rid his sensitive nostrils of the offensive smell. "Gross beyond all belief? Manny, tell me you're not going to make Morgan choke that down."

Heaving a disappointed sigh, the mammoth replied, "Sadly, no." Carefully, Manny lowered the moss to the ground.

As soon as he did that, Ellie delicately picked one up and held it over Morgan's gash. Then she squeezed it, making the water it was soaked with gush out and flow over the bloody wound.

Sid caught on and grabbed one himself, mimicking the mammoth female.

Leaving the sloth to cleaning Morgan's shoulder, Ellie picked up the bundle of marigold and yarrow. Placing them on the flattest piece of shale she could find, she picked up a smaller rock and began pounding the herbs.

Both Manfred and Diego watched her proceedings in confusion. The saber-tooth tiger glanced at his mammoth friend, who could only shrug in return. What on earth was she doing?

Before either could venture the question, Ellie scooped up the flat rock and held it forward, asking: "Okay now. Who wants t' spread this on that poor creature's wound?"

"Poor creature my left tusk," Manfred muttered sullenly when he dumped another large branch onto the roaring fire. It had taken him ages to scrub that green, foul-smelling concoction off of his trunk. The mammoth bull had been shanghaied into the detestable task on the grounds that the last thing Ellie needed was an infection from that filthy mammoth female, Sid's hands were wet, and Diego _lacked_ hands altogether. Had the 'possum twins been present, Manny would have immediately forced the job on them.

"Oh cheer up, Mr. Gloom-an'-doom," Sid called cheerfully across the huge fire. "At least we'll be extra warm tonight." The only response the sloth got was a low grumble as the bull strode (still slightly limping) over to his mate. Slowly tucking in his back legs, he settled onto his stomach.

Diego flinched when wood popped and sent a spark flying, and relaxed a little when it landed in front of him instead of in his tawny pelt. The saber's back was already to the shale bank, inhibiting him from retreating further from the blaze. "Remind me _again_ why the fire has to be so big?"

Ellie sighed. "An unconscious mammal's body temperature drops easier than when they're active. Seeing as her lights are out, we have to make sure that her body doesn't loose too much heat." She nodded to herself. But seeing her male herd mates' expressions, she added: "Besides, it's cold tonight."

"Sweetheart," Manny sighed, "we're in an Ice Age. Cold is just a _fact_."

On a rare occasion, the smallest bit of mammoth temper would bubble its way up in Ellie. It was an uncommon occurrence, as she was usually a very placid creature. But again her mate rubbed her fur the wrong way and she gave him an irritated look. "Manny, what 'n tusk's name is you're trouble with Morgan?" she inquired irately, for once using the age-old mammoth expression that referred to her curved tusks.

Manfred turned to his mate, grumbling: "No trouble, other than the fact that she's a sharp-tongued little hot-blood who needs to learn to shut up!"

"You know that's kind of hypocritical," Sid put in, raising one of his index claws.

Manny glared at the sloth, snapped: "Shut-up," and looked back to his still frowning mate. "Personally, I would love to just leave Miss. Moody here for the crows. But, it would seem that I'm out numbered on votes. You three want to save this waste of oxygen," Here he looked around the fire, to see everyone nodding. "So I'm outdone. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. We're going to stay here and make sure she doesn't die, but as soon as she can travel, it's bon-voyage. We're pointing her in the direction of her herd and giving her a good, solid kick in their direction."

Ellie nodded sharply in agreement, her mate's attitude still leaving a bad taste in her mouth.

"Too bad she doesn't have a herd to go back to," Diego interjected nonchalantly, flexing his claws in an absentminded manner.

"What?" Manny gaped, turning his confused eyes to his saber friend.

"You mean she's a _loner_?" Sid gasped.

The mammoth bull across the fire snorted in disbelief. "Impossible," he scoffed, "there's no such thing as female loners. Bulls yes. Females no. Female's always live in herds."

"Her scent says otherwise," Diego rejoined smoothly. "Besides, have you taken a good look at her? She's got her share of scars. If she lived in a herd, she'd smell like one and she doesn't. Not to mention that a herd with plenty grown male's would provide more than adequate of shelter from predators."

Ellie frowned in confusion, "Why _couldn't_ she be a loner? Why do you never see loner females?"

For a moment, Manfred was at loss for words. "Well…" he began, fishing around for an explanation that would satisfy his mate's curiosity. "You just…don't. Females just never live alone, its unheard of, and impossible."

"Impossible for them to live alone?" Ellie arched an eyebrow.

"The herd would never allow her to leave," he replied simply, "and if she somehow managed to, they'd chase her down and drag her back."

The mammoth female's emerald eyes grew big, "That's awfully harsh. Maybe she did leave an' she's on the run."

Manny snorted, "What mammoth herd would want her back?"

Diego nodded. "That's why I'm suspecting she's an outcast," he stated plainly after working a piece of his dinner from between his teeth. He had to hand it to these lions around here, the rabbits were good.

"And _that_ wouldn't surprise me in the least," Manny growled, quickly flicking a stray spark off his shoulder. "She's bad tempered enough for them to want her gone. I know if I was the herd leader, I'd boot her out faster than she could blink."

"But that means—" Ellie gasped.

Suddenly Manfred knew where his mate's thoughts were taking her and he was pretty sure he didn't like the direction. "Oh, no," he muttered.

Turning her surprised gaze on the mammoth bull, Ellie blurted, "That means she's got nowhere t' go!" She looked back to the unconscious young female. "She'll be out all alone with no one t' look out for her!"

"Ellie, I think she prefers it that way." _And so do I._

Ellie was about to protest, when Diego cut in. "He's right, you know. I don't think we could get her to stay in our herd if we _all_ begged her."

Manny couldn't help but notice how the saber had stressed the 'all' in his comment.

"So," Sid quired, twiddling his blunt claws, "what do we do with her? Seeing as she's stuck in here with us in."

Diego was at loss for words at the sloth's question. Not even he'd thought of that.

Ellie's ears pricked forwards. "Sid's right. Those lions want her for diner just as much as ours. If we turn her out the moment she can walk, she'll be an open target. Best keep her with us."

"Besides," Diego added when Manny looked about to protest, "she'll be able to fight soon after she can walk." Shifting his position the saber went on, "We could always use another pair of tusks."

That seemed to sober Manfred up. With Morgan temporarily (he mentally underscored temporarily) added to their group, their odds of escaping alive went up. Even though she was young, Manny had seen enough of the mammoth female's berserker strength to know that she could hold her own in a scrape. He already detested her guts, but he had to give her that much credit.

"The little hot-blood might come in handy," Diego reminded, as though he could read Manfred's thoughts.

The mammoth bull was stubborn, but he wasn't stupid, not like another mammoth he could name—giving the inert Morgan a glare (as though she could see his icy look). _He_ knew when he was beat. And so, grudgingly, Manny gave a heavy sigh of defeat and grumbled: "Fine, she stays…. Until we get out of this tight spot, she stays."

A/N: Like I said, Morgan is based off of me. No, I've never fought lions (much less cave lions, though it sounds like fun), and no, I…oops, can't tell ya' that part. But she is me…on the inside. In the beginning, I knew I was going to weave myself in the story. I also knew that Manny and I would either be fast friends or worst enemies (my tongue being as naturally sharp as his). My friends Selonian and TYFFN thought it would be far more humorous for us to not get along. So, we don't. But the funny thing is, (and many people I know have informed me of this numerous times. Yes, even adults) inside, we're not that much different.


	7. The Shield

Consciousness came slower than a tundra spring to Morgan and the blurred shapes in front of her half-lidded eyes made no sense to her aching head. She groaned as feeling slowly crept into her numb body. "Mmmmmm," she moaned again, trying to move her trunk; she inched the tip a ways, and gave up, resigning to allow her dead limbs to wake up. 

Then came the strange, distorted voice. "Rise an' shiiii-iiiine," it sang cheerily. Morgan forced her dazed eyes farther open but had to promptly snap them shut at the harsh light. 

"C'mon, wake up," the voice (less distorted now) prompted.

Why in tusk's name did that voice sound familiar? Cracking her eyes open, carefully, she focused on the grey blur hovering over her head. She soon realized that the hovering blur had a pair of inquisitive blue eyes, a large pair of front teeth and an even larger nose. "Hi there!" it greeted, an even broader grin crossing its features.

The startled mammoth female had but on reaction for the smiling sloth: "AAAAHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Manny flicked a small ear upwards, cocking his eyebrows in puzzlement. "Did you hear something?" he inquired to the mammoth female beside him.

Lifting her own minute ears, she shook her head. "No. Nothin' but birds." Her mate looked at her, his expression still suspicious. Ellie sighed quietly and ripped up another shrub. She tucked it gently into her mouth and chewed. There hadn't been the slightest bit of trouble all morning. The only carnivore they'd seen was a bright red fox as it slunk through the underbrush. No one else other than occasional birds and squirrels could be seen, heard, or smelled. Scanning the area around her for the millionth time, she realized they were not far from the original camp. The mammoth female's mind was drawn to Crash and Eddie. Ellie caught herself wishing she knew where her brothers were, if they were safe. "Manny," she unconsciously began, "d' you think that…Crash and Eddie will…?"

The mammoth bull swallowed a mouthful of chewed leaves. "What? Find us?" he finished. Seeing Ellie nod, her expression worried, he tried to calmly reassure his mate. "I wouldn't worry about those two. They're not on the ground, and there's plenty of protection up in those trees." He tried to be comforting, but her concern did not abate.

"But what if they can't find us?" Ellie blurted, her tone betraying her reeling emotions.

"They found me." 

The mammoth female paused, confused as to his meaning. "What are you talkin' about?"

Manfred almost grinned as he looked back on the memory, "Do you remember about four years ago? Back when before we were mated, back when we thought the world was flooding?"

"Yes."

"And remember when you were trapped in that rock-fall and your brothers went for help?"

"Well, yes."

Manny was smiling now, "Well they found me. Out of hundreds of creatures, they found me and they lead me to you." The woolly mammoth bull gave his mate a warm nudge to the cheek, momentarily savoring her scent. "We sent them to find a way out of here…I doubt they'll have any trouble finding _us_."

A hesitant grin replaced Ellie's look of apprehension. "I suppose you're right," she murmured. Taking a deep breath, she nodded to assure herself. "Those two are crazy knot-heads…but they're resourceful crazy knot-heads." 

Without warning, the mammoth female gave a startled flinch.

Noticing her sudden movement, Manny frowned and gave her an inquisitive glance, cocking his head to the side. "What, is the kid kicking?"

Giving a slight grin, nodding, Ellie flinched again. "Yeah, all through the night too."

"Hmmmmmmm…" Manny left his leafy meal strode over to his mate, swallowing his last bite of the well ground foliage. Carefully—and minding his massive tusks—he laid his ear against Ellie's warm side, listening closely to her swollen belly. He closed his eyes…. 

The mammoth bull's features could barely contain his broad smile when he heard the quick little heartbeat of the unborn calf. Though, he then could not suppress the loud snort of astonishment when a little something bumped his ear from within.

"Ooh, I felt that," Ellie giggled. The small mammoth inside her had been doing quite a bit of moving around lately. When this had all began, she had worried that her time was coming soon and that perhaps the calf knew. But she'd reminded herself that her due date was a good two months off. Though tremendously closer than twenty-two, still a while away. 

A sudden question popped into Ellie's mind.

"Manny," she began, giving his side a little nudge with the curve of her tusk.

He lifted his head, glancing over his broad shoulder. "Mmmm?" 

"Do you catch yourself wondering what it will be? Or…or even what it will look like or be like?" she inquired, her ears flicking.

Again, Manfred couldn't help but grin. "Yeah, sometimes." After a moment of thought, he raised his eyebrows and sighed, his voice turning serious, "I just hope its personality winds up with a shade more towards you."

"What makes you say that?"

Manny smiled, almost apologetically and replied, "Well, lets just say that my calf-hood was a rather…adventurous one."

"Oh, surly it wasn't that bad," Ellie returned skeptically.

"No," the mammoth bull assured her, "I was quite the mischievous little trunkful…my mother always said I was, ahh…a spirited youngster." 

The mammoth female couldn't help but tease him. "What? Are you worried you wind up raising a little fire-brand...kinda' like Morgan?" 

Manfred obviously didn't find the humor and his eyes narrowed. "No calf of mine is going to act like that brazen idiot!" he snorted, already getting worked up.

"Well this little calf _will_ be related to _you_ too—I hope you realize," his mate reminded him, one of her eyebrows arched.

Manny frowned. "Well what's that got to do with anything? I'm not a brazen idiot."

Ellie gave a short laugh and shook her head, walking forward and around a broad redwood. _Sometimes_, she thought to herself. _Sometimes I wonder about him._

"What?" Manfred inquired, completely mystified. He'd never been much at female insinuations, and it appeared as though he wasn't improving much. He followed her as she walked in a slow circle about the tree.

Heaving a sigh Ellie explained. "Manny, every now and then you say the strangest things."

Still confused, the woolly mammoth bull followed still. "How so?" he asked.

She gave another laugh, stopped and from around the massive tree trunk, gave him a look he didn't quite understand. Something between affection and exasperation—if that was at all possible. "You just can't see how alike you an' Morgan are, can you?" she sighed, one again shaking her head.

Manny lifted the tip of his trunk—something he always did when felt good and argumentative—and frowned. "That's the third time someone has mentioned something like that. And—"

"An' did it ever occur to you that itmight be _true_?" 

Manny was at a momentary loss for words.

After only four years of being together (Manny truly hadn't beat around the bush in asking to be her dearly beloved), Ellie could read her mate's emotions well. She'd always been a fast learner and the fact that Manny was transparent as ice made the up difference. "Listening to the pair of you argue, it wasn't hard to figure out," the mammoth female went on. She suddenly smiled good-humoredly. "Besides," she almost chuckled, "she kinda' looks like you…. At least in the eyes." 

Her last statement took the bull by surprise. So he hadn't been the only one to notice that. A tingle traced his spine as the image of Morgan's wild, almond-hued stare lashed back through thoughts. The sense of recognition returned, and for a second time he was reminded where he'd seen those eyes before.

"You just think their eyes are alike just because neither of them ever smiles," put in a jesting voice.

Manny nearly jumped out of his fur when he realized that predatory tone was directly behind him. 

"Sheesh, Manny," Diego purred in amusement. "I thought you'd have smelled me long before you herd me. Seeing as that long thing attached to your face isn't just for decoration…or just for snuggling with Ellie." 

Diego counted a mental point towards himself when his mammoth friend's ears turned a touch red. If they couldn't spar every morning (thanks to Manfred's chest wound), then he could at least pick up their old game of batting sardonic remarks back and forth.

"Deigo," Manfred blurted, clearly disconcerted. "How…how much of that conversation did you hear?"

The saber-tooth cat just tilted his head to the side, as though it was hard to remember. "Oh…just the your thoughts on our current…brazen idiot?"

Manny heaved a sighing: "Oy…."

Ellie snuck her flustered mate a tiny smile, giving him a look underneath her thick eyelashes. Manny just returned an embarrassed grin. _Snuggling with Ellie, eh? _The mammoth female decided it best if she changed the subject. "So," she inquired of Diego, "you been hunting?"

"Oh, yes," Sid replied with an emphatic nod. 

"For how many years?"

"About five now." 

The mammoth female across from him arched her eyebrows. How anyone could put up with that knot head of a bull for five years was far beyond her. 

"So, where you from?" Sid asked, crunching on another twig.

The sloth's question seemed to catch Morgan off guard for a moment. Her shocked expression was soon replaced with one of mere indifference. She shrugged (as best she could, seeing as she was still sprawled out on her side) and replied nonchalantly: "Ah, nowhere special."

Tapping a blunt claw on one of her curved tusks, Sid spoke around his mouthful of food. "You're a tundra mammoth, arentcha'?"

Morgan frowned. "And what put you at _that _conclusion?"

Grinning, the ground sloth ran his hand down the underside of the tusk. He swallowed. "You're tusks are smooth on the bottom."

Morgan gave him an irked look.

Sid just looked smug.

"So?" the mammoth female snorted, admitting defeat.

"So that means you have to dig through ice to get to grass and water." 

She was silent for a moment. "Okay," she began, at long last. "I'm a tundra mammoth. So what? But how did you know what to look for?"

Sid wiggled his eyebrows, jerked his thumb in the direction Manfred and Ellie had left, and replied: "My mammoth friend—the big guy."

"_He's_ no tundra mammoth," Morgan growled.

Holding up an index claw, the sloth cut off her grousing. "Nope, he's half. His daddy was a tundra mammoth. His mom was from the northern hills." 

"Sid, do you intend on telling this vagabond my entire life story?" a gruff voice interjected. 

His head whipping towards the speaker, Sid grinned affably at his much, _much _larger friend. "Just chatting, buddy, just chatting." The sloth noticed Deigo wasn't with Manfred and his mate.

Giving the sloth a mere grunt of a response, Manny turned his attention to Morgan (who was already giving the bull a sour glare). "Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to wake up," he commented wryly.

The mammoth female was about to lash back when: "Ehem," Ellie "coughed", giving her mate a reprimanding look.

Manfred just sighed and stalked to the other side of the camp.

Ellie, however, strode over to Morgan and gave her a warm smile. "Hi there. How you doen'?" She noticed how the young mammoth studied her. Her eyes didn't narrow like they did when she gave Manny her suspicious stare, but they were far from trusting. _She must think we're gonna' turn her over to some mammoth herd._

"I'm fine," she replied at last. "My shoulder feels a bit stiff." At saying this, she tried to flex it. But she winced and let it go limp. "What in tusks name did you put on it? It doesn't throb like usual."

Ellie tried to hide her glowing pride. "Oh," she shrugged modestly, "just something my mother taught me."

"Well, thank you," the Morgan went on (speaking specifically to Ellie), "if you could give me a little nudge, I'll get up and be on my way."

"Oh I highly doubt _that,_" came a smooth tone from the shale bank.

Ellie was a little shocked when Morgan's gaze snapped past her, eyes narrowed. She let loose a loud rumble—a threatening sound that came from somewhere deep in her throat.

Resting on the bank was Diego. The saber was watching the untrusting glare the wounded mammoth gave him with silent amusement. "Oh don't worry," he purred, "I don't think I'd want to eat you anyway." 

"She'd probably give you intestinal worms," Manny muttered darkly.

Diego ignored his mammoth friend and paused to give his chest fur a few quick licks. "But you're not one who will be going anywhere soon. And when you do, not alone."

"Oh really?" Morgan quired, her tone sharp. "Well I'll tell you what, saber-tooth—"

"Here she goes," Manny griped under his breath.

"I'll try to say this slowly, so your feline brain can comprehend. I…fly…solo…. When…I…want…to go…I…_go_. I take orders from me…and _only _me."

Holding up the tip of his trunk, Manfred silenced Diego's cool reply. He stepped back towards Morgan and stopped when he was looming over the wounded female. Inside, the bull was grinning smugly from ear to ear; outside, he was fixing Morgan in his stern stare.

_Oh goody,_ Diego sighed to himself, _what kind of fight are we going to start today? _The saber noticed Ellie and Sid casting worried glances at each other.

"You," Manny began, his voice far from friendly, "are coming with us." 

Morgan snorted disdainfully. "Did _you_ decide this?"

"As a matter of fact, I did."

"Fat liar," Diego muttered in an undertone.

"WHAT!" Morgan exclaimed, her expression one of entire shock and outrage.

"You," Manny stuck his trunk in the flabbergasted mammoth female's face, "owe someone a debt."

Morgan narrowed her eyes.

The three behind Manfred exchanged quizzical glances.

The mammoth bull pointed his trunk behind him at his expecting mate. "Her." 

Ellie looked to Diego with bewildered eyes. The saber shrugged and both turned their attention back to Manny when the woolly mammoth began growling again.

"You owe her a debt for saving your worthless hide. Instead of letting you bleed to death, like I felt like doing—

"Fat-_er_ liar," Diego muttered again.

—she patched you up."

"What do you want me to do about this?" Morgan practically snapped. "It's not my fault she decided to help me." The mammoth female's aggression was far from directed at Ellie, but at her belligerent mate.

"That hardly changes the facts," Manfred rumbled. "When you can walk, we're leaving, you're coming with us, and you are going to protect _her _with the life she so graciously saved. Got that?"

For a moment, she just glared. Her almond-brown eyes shooting daggers into his light ones. Finally she spoke, her tone as slicing as her defiant stare. "And what in tusks' name could I be protecting her from? A trunkful of beaten up cave lionesses?"

"Do the name's Sol, Noland, and Colin ring any bells in your head?"

The rebellious fire in her eyes dimmed. Again, she merely studied the bull before her. But then the mammoth female's expression grew suspicious. "What do you take me for, pal? Yeah of herd of those three—in stories. Because that's all they are—stories. Tales invented from hearsay and superstition."

"But you have herd these stories?"

"Well yeah."

"Well let me ask you how big a lion would have to be to make marks like these." With that said, Manny moved his head and trunk aside to reveal his jagged chest injury.

Morgan once again dropped into silence. Even from where she lay, she could smell how fresh those wounds were. But what caught her attention the most was how far they spread. None of the lionesses she'd fought could have done that. Three days previous she'd seen the pride's young king jump through the underbrush in hot pursuit of a small deer. He was hardy larger than his lionesses. Far too small to inflict gashes such as those scored across Manfred's chest…. Could he be telling the truth? Why would he lie? It was easily apparent that he disliked her as much as she him. The last thing he would want his her anywhere near him…. "What choice do I have," Morgan growled, arching an eyebrow.

"Not much," Diego put in before Manfred could. 

Both mammoths turned their attention towards the saber-tooth tiger. Manny gave him an irked look. _Steal my thunder, will ya'?_

Diego just gave the bull a fleeting, apologetic grin. He looked back to Morgan and continued. "Those lions want your skin for that nice humiliation yesterday. Put a bit of a stain in their pride…no pun intended. So if you go off all by your lonesome, you'll wind up as dinner—"

"Come with us an' you might have a chance," Manny interrupted (reclaiming authority over the conversation). "_Meaning_, you help protect _her_," the mammoth bull pointed to his mate, "until we get out of this mess, and _we_ (meaning I) won't throw you and your beat-up shoulder into the lion's den. Get it?" 

"Fine," Morgan spat, her eyes turning back to steel. "But are you sure you don't want me defending _you_ as well? Or better yet…should I _carry_ you across my back?"

"You can hardly carry yourself."

"So _you think!_" With that vehement retort, the obstinate mammoth female began struggling from her side to her knees. 

Manny didn't try to stop her, nor was he surprised when Morgan's exertions got her nowhere save a one-way trip back to the dirt. "You done yet?" he growled. 

Her only answer was a rebellious glare, aimed directly at the bull that infuriated her so. She said nothing and lay there, panting. What was there to say that her enraged eyes didn't convey? 

He turned slowly and walked off down the dry stream, shaking his head. This female was a loose cannon. Even when she healed, who knew what the young berserker would do? 

Ellie watched Morgan a moment longer. The younger female lowered her head back to the ground and with one last sigh, closed her eyes. She stormed after Manny. 

Manfred only noticed that his mate was following him when she gave his tail a rough jerk. He turned around and was surprised to meet a pair of scolding emerald eyes. 

"What are you tryin' t' pull, Manny?" Ellie hissed in an undertone.

He sighed. "What are you talking about?"

"I thought th' idea was t' help someone!" she growled, her eyes aflame, "Not play up this guilt trip so I'd have a livin' shield!"

"Well there've been a change of plans," her mate grumbled back. "She can fight, and she will if the occasion calls for it."

Ellie was flabbergasted. She knew Manny had a titanium backbone but she'd never seen his gold heart loose its luster. "I can't believe you. What has gotten into you? What is making you do this?"

Her word struck a key in the mammoth bull's mind. Bloodstained images flashed across his vision with blinding speed, though he could see the gruesome detail of ever one. _If ever you could possibly know, you'd be shocked._

"Remember what I said to you back in the clearing?" he asked, trying to keep the quaver out of his voice. "About what I'd do to get us out of this mess? Well I meant it. Every word."

"And this is the best you could think of?" Ellie snapped, her expression for more hurt than angry.

It took a moment for Manny to answer. "This is the best I've got."

Ellie sighed and shook her head. She couldn't help feeling gulty. Even if Morgan could take care of herself, which she probably could after a few days, she didn't like the idea of anyone being forced into being a bodyguard. I didn't feel right. "I just wish…we didn't have to do it this way."

Manny noticed how she'd said _we _instead of _you._ He also realized that she thought herself part of the problem. She was trying to shoulder the burden alongside him. _Boy, I sure found one heck of a keeper._ Lowering his voice, Manny agreed. "Yeah…me too."

His mate looked up at him, the slightest hint of amusement in her eyes. "Even though you can't stand her?"

"Even though," he relented, his ears drooping at the mere mention of the tundra female belligerent nature.

Ellie couldn't help but smile. "Well, I doubt she'll do her job without a bit of input."

"This is going to be a long trip…."

A/N: FINALLY! The next chapter! collapses. You have no clue how many plot knots I had to undo in the writing of this one. Sorry for the wait, but I had to make it just right, you know.


	8. What's in a Name?

A/N: IIIIIII'm back

A/N: IIIIIII'm back! Diddja' miss me?!

random infuriated person throws a random infuriated kitten

Kit: REEEEEAAAAARRR! scratchscratchscratchscratchscratch

Moi: AAAAAHHHH! MY FACE! I'M SORRY IT'S LATE! I'M SORRY!!

The plan was going well. The final piece of the puzzle was set into place; the last pawn of the game had been moved. Crouched flat atop the steep hill was a predator—a conspirator. Its golden eyes glinted maliciously in the weak moonlight of the gloomy forest. This game belonged to them, not those weak impostors who pretended to play this deadly sport. The trap was being set, all the minute workings looked over carefully.

The predator smiled viciously, giving itself a moment to envision the end of the line…. Soon, their victim's blood would stain the ground and victory would be theirs.

_Dang it, why does that thing still hurt?_ Manny wondered to himself the next day. His chest injury was still paining him and he couldn't walk without a limp—although slight—marring his rolling gate.

Ellie had looked the wound over late last nigh and, to her eyes, it had appeared fine. The skin had scabbed over and the gashes were healing.

But who knew about the chest muscles beneath?

An annoying little voice in the back of his head told him he wasn't going to be able to move those muscles like he used to. And for a bull in his physical prime (Okay, fine, being honest here. In the _tail end _of his physical prime), that was a hard fact for his pride to swallow.

"Caw!"

The noise jerked him out of his reverie. Looking up, the mammoth bull noticed for the first time the huge crow perched on the branch of a young redwood. It's beady eyes glared at him, as though Manfred had just yanked out its tail feathers and things had just gotten personal.

"Caw!" it exclaimed again—a grating sound that scraped against his eardrums—and then it leaped off the branch and winged off. Manny wasn't much a judge of flying, but something about the way the black avian beat its wings told of a need to hustle.

_Odd,_ he thought, a tingle tracing though his fur. He knew that bird minds worked much differently from mammals, but it still put him on edge.

The mammoth realized exactly what he was thinking, and swept those thoughts aside with a shake of his head. _Maybe Sid's right, _he pondered, _maybe I _am _paranoid._

For the moment, Manny was standing in camp. He was awake (he'd had last watch and had been up since) and hadn't set about the task of rousing his herd. Not even Diego had gotten up to find his breakfast and he was usually up before the sun. It had taken a bit of doing to rise without waking Ellie. But she obviously hadn't been quite ready to greet the new day and had settled back into sleep with a little sigh.

Now, you might think that the first thing Manfred would do after first getting up himself, would be to rise-an'-shine the rest of his little bunch. But not this morning. His herd always looked so at peace when they slept (even Sid with his more lively slumbers) and they were always so much more…quiet. Not that they got on his nerves or anything…well—the bull's gaze flicked back to the sloth—not _all _the time. He just needed a little noiseless thinking moment. He used to get that all the time when it was just him and his bachelor friends…back when he'd been a bachelor himself. But things just got more energetic when he'd tied the knot (so to speak). He wouldn't trade all the quiet in the world for Ellie and her brothers. But it felt good to be on his own every now and then to just…ponder.

The woolly mammoth was beginning to walk (limp) down the dry streambed, when a strange murmur made him pause. It sounded something akin to a growling gurgle.

He knew that noise.

Looking over his shoulder, Manny glanced at Ellie. No, it wasn't her. He knew it wasn't him. Sweeping his gaze to the edge of camp he looked at the inert form of Morgan. Again the grumble came and he could see the young female give a wince in her sleep.

That was an unmistakable sound if he ever heard one: the complaint of a hungry mammoth's gut. Countless times, Manny had gone without eating—mostly when he was younger and the itch to roam overrode the urge to stop and eat—had he heard that noise. He realized that she'd gone without a meal for at least a day…that he knew of. Something told him that she was used to being hungry for extended periods. Living on the tundra, one was forced to do without sufficient feeding when the ice became too thick to dig out grass. Therefore, tundra mammoths tended to gain weight easily—an adaptation that came in handy when you had no clue when your next meal would be (and an annoying family trait for someone who's body, although only half tundra mammoth, had a bit of the same tendencies, even though said body was far better fed). Studying Morgan's flanks, Manfred realized she looked a little thin for a mammoth of her age…she'd never be able to get up and find food with that wound…. Manny walked off mentally grumbling: _Let go hungry a little more. Perhaps that'll teach her a bit of…_her stomach groaned once again, almost beseechingly….

He stopped and looked at her over his shoulder….

The bull grudgingly stomped off with a quiet moan of distaste. _I swear you're going soft Manfred! _he groused at himself as he strode away, his head lowered and his shoulder fur high in irritation. _No_, he mentally returned_, I'm supplying my mate with a fatter shield._ He nodded silently to himself, glad to justify this one act of kindness with a selfish angle.

When Ellie awoke, her mate's ever-warm side was not pressed against hers.

Slowly, she had come awake, consciousness creeping through her frame; and then was jolted alert when a little something kicked her rib from the inside. The mammoth female had sighed when her muscles finally relaxed. She'd swore, if her unborn calf kept this up it was getting a good spanking the moment it came out! Goodness, it was an active little thing!

Then it had truly hit her. Her mate's trunk was not resting loosely around hers; there was no soft, rhythmic push of his breathing side against her swollen belly. The first thing that came was a bit of panic, forcing its way down her spine and twisting her stomach. But she shoved that aside.

_Panic impairs judgment, so keep your head._

Some words of wisdom Diego had once imparted to her. The mammoth female quickly looked around her, taking a swift head-count. Everyone else was here. Even Diego. But her Manny was still missing. She made herself relax. Her mate was a big mammoth bull (well…she though he was big), quite capable of taking care of himself in this wild world.

And then she saw him.

Out of the corner of her eye, a figure—a mere blur of movement—appeared up the dry streambed; it was carrying something. Ellie didn't turn to look, quite the contrary, she let her head settle slowly into a resting position—her tusks as support—narrowed her eyes and watched. She wasn't quite sure what made her feint sleep, perhaps it was the way he moved—somewhat furtively—or maybe it was just gut instinct, but she pretended to be unaware to his suspicious going-ons none-the-less.

It seemed as though he were hauling a large amount of shrubs he'd ripped from the ground. Walking slowly—Ellie noticed that he still had his limp—into camp, she was shocked right down to the ground when he quietly approached Morgan with his burden. Standing before her, he looked at his "sleeping" herd members and proceeded with his stealthy work. Carefully, he laid the vegetation in front of the slumbering tundra female, wincing at every snap of twigs. With that done, he backed away, again glancing at his herd members in turn, and hurried off.

Ellie would have laughed aloud would it not have given her away. But the whole situation was just too much! Far too humorous and ironic! The mammoth female felt tears well in her eyes and her ribs hurt from holding it in.

Morgan: the one creature that could drive Manny up a tree and to the moon (she didn't even think _Sid_ was capable of that much irritating when it came to her mate)…he was actually showing _kindness _to her! What's more, the lengths he would go to so that no one knew about it! Remembering his cautious footsteps and his sneaky glances just made it so much more hilarious.

Then, when she heard Morgan's stomach give a minute growl, she pieced it all together…. Ellie couldn't help but smile.

"He sure thinks he's sneaky, doesn't he?" an amused tone purred to her right.

The mammoth female gave a little flinch of surprise, her head whipping to the only one that voice could have come from.

The saber allowed his yellow-green eyes to slide open all the way, his crossed paws barely concealing his grin.

Ellie smiled back, sighing. "He's got a good heart…he just isn't much on showien' it sometimes." She thought for a moment…and then glanced over at Diego. "Come to think of it," the mammoth female mused quietly, "I seem to remember a certain saber-tooth tiger who's much th' same."

For a moment, he looked about to protest, but then he shut his mouth. Shaking his head, the saber got up and gave a small stretch. "I'dunno' what you're talking about, Ellie. But I'm off to find breakfast if you don't mind."

"Yeah, sure," she murmured. Watching Diego leap effortlessly up the shale embankment and trot into the foliage, Ellie supposed it was time to get up. After all, she was going to need to take credit for something she didn't do pretty soon.

It was rather odd at first, when Morgan woke up. Upon spying the heap of greenery, Ellie could've sworn she saw the mammoth drooling. But that expression soon hardened into proud skepticism. For a moment, Ellie thought she was going to shove it away, but then the younger female spotted her.

She'd been standing there for a moment or two. After tickling Morgan's ear with a leaf, she'd hurried to a less noticeable position. _Looks like Manny's not the only one saving some pride, _she laughed to herself.Actually…in this case, Ellie wasn't saving her own pride, but that of the wounded female before her. So it wasn't exactly the same.

"I thought you might be hungry," Ellie explained, shrugging her shoulders and conjuring up as much nonchalant as she could muster (though she had nothing on Diego when it came to cool and composed). She figured, the less concerned she appeared, the less it would seem to Morgan like an arrears that needed repaying.

The suspicion visibly drained out of the tundra female like water off a waxy leaf, and she looked at the shrubs again. "Thanks," she mumbled, her gaze still fixed on the food.

Ellie walked off down the streambed to go search for Manny. When she heard Morgan begin tucking in the rough cuisine with gusto, she had to suppress a snicker.

"Well, well, well," Sid muttered to himself when he caught sight of something quite unexpected. He almost didn't spot the little golden petals, but when he did, the sloth couldn't help but pluck it off by the stem and pop it in his mouth. "Mmph…dandelion," he ruminated to himself, thoroughly enjoying the tiny flower.

Sid had climbed his way up the shale bank, bit by bit, to get here. Smelling food, he couldn't resist, even if it meant having to listen to Morgan's snickers as he made his clumsy attempts. He didn't find that so irritating though. He was used to it from Manfred and Diego, one more laughing mammal didn't make much difference to the sloth.

But soon, he was pulled away from those thoughts when another scent caught his nose's attention. Picking himself up, the sloth waddled over to another bush. He dipped his head down and thrust his arms forward, lifting up the dense foliage in different spots. Sid hummed a little tune as he searched.

Though, he soon broke off when he realized another, more threatening noise, was just behind him.

The sloth chanced a swift look over his shoulder and confirmed the quiet growling was just behind him. For a moment, he debated his choices as his fur stood straight with fear.

Impulsive decision won out.

As fast as he could, Sid bolted to the left, crashing through bushes, his arms straight out to clear whipping branches from his path. Besides the pounding of blood in his ears, the sloth could hear the drumming of paws against the loamy earth. Was it just his imagination, or where those paws getting closer? He knew better than to look behind to find out. Twisting his path as much as his stubby legs would allow, Sid dove into another bush—this far one denser than the first.

Panting, he struggled his way through the slapping branches. Panicky thoughts threatened to burst his mind when he realized that it was slowing him down, and when he became so ensnared in the brambles, his thudding heart felt about to pop out of his mouth.

But then, for a moment, the sloth wondered hopefully if the brambles were too tight for even his pursuer to get through. That optimism was squashed when a little paw pushed through, hooked claws extended.

Sid pressed himself tightly against the branches, praying herbivore prayers as the carnivore tore at the wall of foliage.

It took Sid a few moments to figure out just what happened next.

Before he knew anything, something caught his middle and gave a powerful heave. However thick the brambles behind him were, he was pulled painfully through them.

Realizing that it's prey was escaping, the predator let loose an infuriated growl. Sid heard it lunge from the bush altogether, ever so intent on catching its meal.

"OW! OW! OW!" the sloth shrieked as thorns ripped at his pelt. With the loud CRACK of a particularly sturdy branch, he was free from the shrub. He took this moment to glance down at his midriff and could have cried with joy at seeing the red-brown rope coiled tight around him. _Manny!_

He didn't have much time to celebrate the fact that he would see another day, for the next thing he realized, the trunk suddenly was gone from his waist he was flying through the air. But that was soon ended when his nose hit familiar ground.

For a moment, the sloth just lay there—stunned. When vicious roaring and infuriated bellowing rent the air, followed by shuddering earth and a painful-sounding WHUMPH! he slowly sat up. The sight that greeted him was far from the one he expected.

First of all, his savior was not Manfred for a change. It was Morgan. At the moment, she was poised over a lioness—her tusks pinning the feline. The sloth recognized her from Jasmine's group. He hoped the rest of her pride weren't close around.

Growling and hissing, the big cat flailed her back legs and scraped at the restraining ivory with her forepaws, the claws scoring marks into the white. She snapped her jaws at the mammoth, showing off her own teeth. Morgan just rumbled back twice as fiercely. Both predator and prey's sides were heaving with exertion as they stared each other down.

Any second, Sid expected the mammoth female to let the carnivore go with a threatening swipe of her tusks to send her on her way. He'd seen Manny do the same many times before. However, as he watched her, he came to understand yet again that he was not dealing with his big mammoth friend.

He could have sworn that something in the young female's eyes snapped. Replacing determination was this wild anger that sent sensations of déjà vu tingling down his spine. Where had he seen eyes like that before? It was right on the tip of his tongue….

"MOMMA!" wailed a tiny voice from above.

Three pairs of eyes shifted to the source of the sound.

Atop the shale bank was a small lion cub. Her eyes were round with terror and her little claws dug into the rock when he realized her mother's fatal predicament.

Turning back to Morgan and the lioness, Sid was further shocked as he watched the young mammoth. For an ever so fleeting moment, she gave the cub a look of pained sympathy—

_Huh?_

—and then pulled her tusk away from the lioness. Even still—as the feline surged forward, away from the creature that nearly brought her death, and up the bank to her cub—Morgan watched. It never ceased to amaze Sid how the lions of this massive wood could come and go so soundlessly and quickly.

"Ehnnn…"

At that strangled moan, Sid's attention was drawn back to the mammoth female just in time to see her shoulder begin to give out. Before she could fall, Morgan carefully laid down, making sure to roll to her uninjured right side.

"M-Morgan!" Sid cried, waddling to the young mammoth, who's stocky frame had begun to shudder with agony. It seemed her exertions had caught up to her. Reaching her, the sloth peered over her head. "You…okay?"

Doing her best to keep her voice steady, Morgan whispered: "Yeah…yeah, I'm good…. Just…don't make me do that again…okay?"

Sid nodded silently. However, he had to ask something. "Why was the cub here? Don't carnivores usually leave their cubs at their dens?" To the sloth's surprise, a mirthless grin crossed the female's features.

"Not that one…" she replied, "she…she was old enough…to begin hunting." Morgan opened her eyes to look up at Sid. "It seems…it seems you were practice for the little one. I suppose Momma picked out a nice, slow…sloth for her to…try out her teachings."

Sid couldn't help but shiver at her words.

"Though…" Morgan continued, "Momma smelled mammoth and figured something odd was up. Mammoths…can be pretty dangerous for little cubs, you know. She just didn't expect…" she paused to winced as another round of pain gripped her shoulder. "She didn't expect a woolly mammoth to have been shanghaied into a bodyguard position."

"Oh…" Sid just stood there for a moment.

"What the heck happened here?" quired a familiar voice. Soon following was Diego, who came trotting down the steep hill and then leapt over the embankment, padding over to the pair.

"I—

THWAP!

"Ouch! What was that for?" Sid blurted, rubbing the back of his head as Morgan pulled her trunk away.

"For being talkative," she grumbled, her shoulder obviously still paining her.

Diego shot his sloth friend an inquisitive look, while all Sid could give him was a baffled expression and a shrug as he continued to rub the sore spot. He was used to occasional thumps to the noggin from Manny, but she hit harder than his mammoth pal usually did. What was with her?

"Nothing happened here," Morgan replied curtly to Diego, "_carnivore._"

The saber curled his lip at the clearly disdainful emphasis of the last word, a low growl building in his throat. Already, Sid could see his hackles begin to rise. Morgan just stared back with just as much distaste in her almond-brown eyes.

"Knock it off you two," rumbled another familiar voice. Diego and Sid looked up to see Manny and Ellie strolling towards them.

"Ah, the gang's all here," Morgan drawled sardonically.

"Who the heck is _she_?"

Morgan's ears pricked upwards at this new voice, her eyes widening.

"What?" someone (easily recognizable and easily detested) else grumbled. "Did you two think Ellie and I were the _only _mammoths on the planet?"

Then Sid piped up, grinning and showing off his buckteeth. "There was a time when that was true, big guy."

Morgan was almost leapt out of her fur when a small striped shape landed on her tusk.

"She looks funny," was the creature's—the possum's—short verdict.

The mammoth female frowned deeply and was about to swipe it away when an identical counterpart appeared beside it. "Naw," it put in, "Manny looks funny, she just looks strange."

SWIPE!

Both marsupials cackled as they bounded away, unscathed, back to their sister's head; exhilarated now that they had someone _new _to annoy. And this creature might prove to be more entertainment than even Diego or their brother-in-law.

"Morgan," Ellie began cheerfully, "meet Crash," she gestured to the scrunch-nosed, blue-eyed one (who stuck his tongue out upon recognition), "and Eddie," the smarter-looking individual who waved and snickered. "They're my brothers."

A few paces behind the younger mammoth, Manny's shoulders stiffened. If ever Morgan had an open opportunity to let loose an un-kind remark—

"Interesting…" he heard her utter quietly. "You were…adopted, I presume?" Though Ellie nodded in reply, Morgan caught her mildly perplexed expression. "Don't sweat," she almost smiled, "You're not _that _strange. Shoot," she snorted, "I grew up with a pair of _twin _mammoth bulls."

"Impossible," she herd Manfred scoff under his breath as he walked by.

The almost smile dropped from her features and turned into the customary scowl. However, before she could spit back something equally customary, the sloth piped up.

"Aw, c'mon," Sid grinned, "you should know by now that _nothing _is impossible, Manfred."

Manny frowned further.

Ellie's eyes lit up.

"Sid, remember that there's a difference between unlikely and impo—"

"Wait."

Manny paused and looked at the speaker. His mate was standing between him and the sloth. Though before the bull could say anything, Ellie turned to look at Sid, her eyes wide. She pointed to the broad-shouldered mammoth behind her. "What did you call him, Sid?"

"Um…." The sloth twiddled his claws, quite unsure what all this was about.

Behind Ellie, Manny's expression was desperate as he made swift horizontal movements with the tip of his trunk—a sure "shut-up!" signal.

But Sid, oblivious to his friend's frantic pleas, replied: "Manfred…?"

When Ellie turned around and gave Manny a look he couldn't quite interpret. "You're full name is…Manfred?" she breathed, seemly elated.

Seemingly at loss for words, the nervous bull tried to avert the attention from himself by blurting: "Well _his_ full name is _Sidney_!"

A few feet away, Morgan gave a snort of laughter while Diego heaved a sigh.

Ever more shocked, Ellie's head twisted around once more to fix Sid in her laughing gaze. Who in turn was whistling had found something suddenly interesting about his tail. "What is with all of you?" she exclaim aloud, looking at the both of them. "Hiding your full names all the time?"

"Despicable," Eddie, muttered where he sat on his rock, shaking is head over his crossed arms, looking downright condescending. Beside him, Crash's appearance was a little more that similar.

"Just despicable," his brother finished for him.

Ellie, however, rounded on the pair of them, her expression business-like. "Oh don't even, _Edward,_" she pointed with her trunk to her first brother (who's ears promptly drooped) , "and—"

Crash's eyes were begging and his posture the same.

"_Cornelius_."

Eddie gasped.

Crash gave a strangled sob.

Morgan laughed wickedly.

At this, both marsupial brothers glared at their sister, turned around, tails high with indignation and chorused, "Traitor," in an abhorring mutter.

("Cornelius…?" Sid murmured to himself.)

Ellie just rolled her eyes good-naturedly, knowing her brothers would be curled up in her fur soon, the expelment of their "sister" from their "family" forgotten. Putting her mind away from the petulant possums, the mammoth turned towards her mate. "Now then…"

Manny winced.

"Manfred…" she cogitated upon the new idea, smiling as she slowly enunciated each syllable. "Why don't you like your full name?"

"It's long, and odd, an—"

"Oh, but it suits you!" Ellie practically squealed, giving him a nuzzle.

"Um…thanks…?"

A/N: PLEASE DON'T SHOOT!

Okay…I know this is WAY overdue…far more overdue that it has a right to be…but bear with me, this one was HARD to grind out, mainly because I'm examining and re-examining my writing style…not to mention that this plot shall be…interesting when the time comes (BWAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!) not to worry.

And if it ain't too much…could ya'll please check out my poll…?

promptly re-shackles herself to the comp


	9. The Definition of Friends

The night had come so swiftly that none of them even remembered the birds having time for their evening calls. Not that they'd been paying attention. What the possum brothers had to say had been of far more importance. But even Morgan, who hadn't been listening to the pair at all, held no regard for the sun and it's age-old habits. No, she had spent the nightfall staring into the growing flames Sid had built, mulling over thoughts that seemed to roll like ponderous stones in her head—back and forth, back and forth. These deliberations ceased to be quiet, and the squalled all the louder as she watched the mammals around her bed down for the night.

Manny, on the other hand, felt better than he had in days. At least the iron grip of tense, bottled-up fear in his gut had loosened its cold fist somewhat. The twin's scouting trip had not been in vain and their findings had boosted the moral of everyone. Not far off—ten miles, tops—was just the exit they'd hoped for. And now as he nestled in besides Ellie, he felt his spirit give a slight lift.

His mate took notice of his renewed expression. The brooding shadows that had hung gloomy and dulling in his eyes had softened and she allowed herself a tiny smile as he nestled in close to her. Even his coarse outer fur gave way to softer under pelt as the stiffer coat no longer unconsciously bristled with pent up anxiety.

Manny's ears flicked forwards upon their gazes meeting. "What?" he inquired quietly—blinking. Seeing her gentle smile broaden and her eyes begin to glow, the quivering of his stomach made the corners of his own mouth pull at the corners. The mammoth bull had often imagined that there was a spark of sorts behind Ellie's emerald eyes. It seemed that when she was happy, that little spark grew. Realizing his presence could fan that illumine ember made his already skipping heart sit up and put some effort into its job.

"Nothin'," she murmured, lifting her head to rub her cheek against his jaw, savoring his deep scent and the feel of his chestnut fur. Upon hearing a swelling hum—a resonating note so low, neither Diego, Sid, nor the possums could have heard—Ellie slowly drew back (though she gave an internal giggle when her mate's head began to follow hers).

Manfred, suddenly realizing the slack grin on his face wasn't all in his imagination, instantly straightened up, his features sobering instantly. Swiftly, he glanced around the camp—his skin hot beneath his fur—and noted with satisfaction that Sid was flat on his back, snoring with the usual gusto, the twins were asleep on their branch, and Diego…seemed to bee smirking, his eyes shut…. It could have easily been a trick of the firelight…. And thank the heavens that Morgan seemed to have gotten lost in thought…. Manfred shifted a little more, trying his best to look composed and failing when he caught the scent of his mate's amusement.

In truth, Morgan had noticed, and her agitated thoughts wound up roiling all the more. They didn't settle like stirred up sand in a stream, quite the contrary: even as the amorous pair whispered their goodnights, her mind was still a spooling mess. She screwed her eyes tight and demanded the banishment of the whirling reverie, but all efforts were in vain.

Not long after, an unfamiliar wash of gratitude calmed her mind when she felt a soft nudge to the bottom of her back foot. Or, did she imagine that? The feeling was so blurred in her mind. Nevertheless, the horrid thoughts scattered and she found herself once more in the world.

Upon opening her eyes, Morgan realized that more time had passed then she'd been aware of. The cool cloak of night had dropped, concealing the dusky haze of twilight and turning its warm golds and reds into indigo and tinted orange from the gently flaming coals.

Everything around her practically radiated peace. The annoying bull and his mate (sweet little thing. Morgan still could not wrap her mind around how he'd wooed a cute female like her) were cozied up together as they'd been last night. From time to time he'd give a soft snore and Ellie would squeeze the tip of his trunk ever so slightly, making him grunt and grin in his sleep. Morgan averted her gaze, feeling the thoughts—expelled little demons—clawing at the edges of her mind.

The fungus-smelling sloth was lying on his back, his back legs waving around in the air as he twitched and muttered softly in the customary activities of his dreams. Her almond eyes scrutinized the diminutive creature a little closer and found him to be just as he had appeared upon her first assessment of him: fat, slow, smelly, overly talkative, and not the sharpest stick in the woods. Why did these other herd members put up with him?

"You know you've just earned a friend for life, if a pungent one, right?"

Morgan's muscles instantly went taught at the sound of the voice; though soft, it was unmistakably predatory. After a moment, she forced herself to relax, not wanting the saber to have any satisfaction that he'd sparked such unease. Despite her efforts, she felt her temper bubble when she caught the scent of his inner smirk. "What makes you say that, saber?" she growled low, eyes narrowing.

"He does that to every mammal that saves his neck."

"He?" she inquired.

"As though you don't know…." Diego practically purred through his long canines, the inner smirk growing until it showed. He would have laughed if the bitter smell of her anger hadn't seared his nostrils. "You save the sloth from any sort of danger—and I think vicious lioness cubs and their mother counts—you befriend the sloth until death do you part…it's sort of the way things go."

"So _that's _why he's with this bunch?" Morag sneered, arching a cynical eyebrow and glaring at the cat. "He's a leech?"

"Not exactly…" he mused, but then began thinking: _Why am I explaining these things to this female? What am I gaining?! _And the side of his mind that so often conjured ways to jestingly rub his large friend's fur the wrong way answered. Though he might be a tad hypocritical, Diego realized that to tease a mammoth was always great fun (especially when you were a nimble creature that could escape swinging tusks). To put mammoths in a nutshell, one had only to factor in their willful nature, prideful tendencies, and the fact that they weren't against a good brawl (such attributes could only come from earth's largest land creatures).

Though Ellie didn't display the latter—due to her unique rearing—she was quite capable of the first and upon rare occasion the second. Thus teasing her couldn't go too far (that and, darn it, she was just too sweet). But this Morgan creature….

"He's a friend."

Morgan quirked an eyebrow.

"Just like him," the saber tilted his head in the big bull's direction.

"So I suppose you saved both their necks," she scoffed, truly finding the idea of a saber-tooth cat saving the neck of a woolly mammoth humorous, even if it was that fat lout.

"Only got the chance to after they risked theirs for mine."

Another snort of disdain as she fixed him in her almond glare, those eyes turning amber-shard sharp in the light of the blaze. "A mammoth save the life of a saber?"

"Yes," he replied simply, his main concern being her interesting expression. It drew the words from his mouth before he could stop them. "That's what you do in a herd."

He was mildly surprised to find that her ear's twitched.

_How familiar, _Diego inwardly purred as he stared back coolly and fought the urge to leer. Instead he simply made a mental note not to forget those eyes…and were he'd seen them first. "Twice, in fact—risking my neck that is (both times having to do with a cliff, oddly enough…)."

"And the sloth?"

Diego didn't reply this time. He had information, she had information; that was as far as the trade would go…unless she was willing to fill in a few blank spaces…he doubted it. The saber knew her type all too well. If he wanted information on her, he'd have to wait for time to coax it out.

Surprisingly, Morgan didn't press him. Nor did she taunt him or his pride with a haughty smirk and those fractured eyes. When Diego allowed his eyes to shift her direction, he saw that she'd closed her eyes and was striving for sleep. Again, an inward grin as he did likewise.

At least he'd gotten her thinking….

A/N: In truth, this was supposed to be tacked onto the previous chapter, but the transition from the name thing moment to this would have been tricky and every time I tried to write it I saw crap, utter crap. You might could say I got lazy, you might could say I improved the thing…. Either way, ya'll get one more chapter than I wrote in my original plot layout.

Ya'll will just have to be content with this chapter for a little bit, then next one's going to be long (and that's just _part one!_) and quite…involved, if you catch my meaning. So DON'T LOOSE FAITH IN MEEE!! I will post!

By the way…. Am I the ONLY person who seems to notice that Manny keeps having to pull Diego up onto a cliff?


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